Talk Is Jericho Baby Talk Is Jericho Welcome to Talk Is Jericho, it's the part of Thunder and Rock and Roll and here we go. Are you ready? It's the Duff McKagan joke of the week. Hey, Chris Jericho, Duff McKagan. I have a joke about a boomerang. Hold on, it'll come back to me. Thank you. Good bye. That's not bad. Not bad. Little Larry David there. Ladies and gentlemen, Rock and Roll Hall, famer Duff McKagan from Guns and Roses. I think he should keep his day job. But actually he's doing pretty
good on this side job here working with the joke of the week on Talk Is Jericho. We love you Duff and we love all your bad dad jokes. Wouldn't be TIJ Friday without you, but since it's Friday and it is a UK week right here on Talk Is Jericho. Let's get the weekend party started with another great vocalist, filmmaker, rock and roller, former Iron Maid
singer Blaze Bailey. You'll hear the story of how he came to front Maid and after Bruce Dickens, it's originally left the band during the height of Maidens popularity and you'll hear how Blaze found out he was no longer in Iron Maid because Bruce and Adrian Smith were both coming back. It's kind of a surprise for him. Blaze got some great stories about touring with Maid and writing and recording two albums with them. What it was like working
creatively with Steve Harris. He also has one big regret about his time in Maid. He's talking with that as well. Plus Blaze just released a new solo album and it's touring Europe this summer. You hear the story all behind infinite entanglement part three. The last and a trilogy of records that he's been writing and recording for the last three years. So let's get to the rock and roll. Blaze Bailey right here on Talk Is Jericho starts now.
You're the mic stand the same well. No, I have the ears of develop strength to hold them like. So it's funny though you mentioned we're here in a hotel in Birmingham with Blaze Bailey and this started okay we've met a few times before. Yeah over the years. I think it was I think we met in New Jersey the first time and what are your very first things that you ever did as a singer. A metal fest there was it. Mill walking off. New Jersey. New Jersey.
Metalfit. It was the place. It was the cricket club. Yeah. It was like a park ellipsic. Yeah and it was it was you. It was me. It was behemoth before they went up and off. You know I'll be crying international. One of your very very first things I remember. It's beating you backstage then man. It was a big weekend for me. Yeah and it's funny because I really close was like like it's something from Escape from New York. It was like
this horrible neighborhood and there's a big chain link fence around this venue. Remember that with like some water on the top or something. And it was all the houses all the local houses were wooden construction and it seemed bizarre to me. I mean you come out of the New York City and there's all this. It's just such a well you know with great respect to the people that lived there. It seemed like a difficult place to live. It was an awful looking place. Yeah. I remember it as well.
Yeah I think so that was the first time I met that one. It's funny many years ago. So there's a little bit of history. Walking down the street a couple months ago in LA and I just happened to be walking past the I was going to the rainbow and I walked past the whiskey and I see Obla's Bailey playing on the eight. I'm like oh what day is it? What time is it? It's 11th or I go you got you guys about five or six songs in the show.
I just happened to walk by and walked inside and it was like it was so much fun. It was a great show. Oh thanks man. It was great to see you there randomly. Yeah. And then of course the wheel starts spinning. Yeah. Yeah. But it was at your first US tour for a while. Yeah. It's the first opportunity that I had to go to the US and do a full tour with my own band. I've been there many times before. I've been a guest singer and you know done odd spots.
I've taken my band there different versions of it for one or two shows. But I've never managed to tour the US a full tour with my own band and it's something I've always wanted to do since Wolfsbane days was the last time really. And I just came together for me. I had a lot of luck and a lot of support from some great fans and we managed to get it together. So that was like the end. That was the last week of the tour and I think played the whiskey like 30 years ago.
I don't like it's just hardly changed. I think the original guy is working there on the sound of life probably dead now. So if you go again to the van, get into the bus and go across the states and that's a long day. It is, man. It's a huge, huge country. It's vast. And obviously I mean it was one of my very, very favorite places to play. But it's a country of very tough competitors and it's just difficult. So but you know I had a lot of luck.
I've had some great fans there and loyal support for so many years and people haven't been able to see me. And I started working on the last four tours that I've done across Europe with the band absolver as my back in band and I really have built up a kind of rapport and telepathy with the band. As you know, working with your own guys. And I wanted to take those guys there with me and do what I do in Europe in the US and of course in the rest of the world. And so that was it.
I kind of drew a line in the sand and said, no, next time I come I'm coming with my own guys and I'm going to do the full show that we do everywhere that we've done a hundred times every year. And we did. And it was great because fans who've been waiting to see me for ten years or more, they just got the best. And they loved it. And to be able to sing at my best and be there performing with the music. And I'm going to say, I'm going to do a couple of different musicians that are no so well.
Does that rapport that you have that no one gets out of anybody's way when I'm on stage? We have this thing which is you hold your ground and you don't step back because you feel intimidated by the audience and you don't get out of your way if you feel intimidated by me. Hold on and hold on and we grab people by the neck the best we can. And what we try to do is say, look, you're not here to watch us. You're here to participate in this show. This is your show.
It's not me getting all these great vibes and feelings. I'll tell you how great I am. It's not that. It's us rejoicing and living in these moments of music that we both love. And that's what we try to do is to wipe people up, take them out of their normal life, reach inside their chest, grab their heart, drag it out, bleeding, blow on it, put it back in their chest and say, no, you're the same, but just a bit better. So that's so important because we have the same type of show.
We ask a lot of our audience as far as being participating and being called the energetic. But that's where you have the best shows. Coming in, like I said, literally walking in off the street and being a fan of your records both with Maiden and without you've never seen you live. Yeah. And that was the fun part. There was a lot of fun going on and that's sometimes in rock and roll. It's a fun is almost a dirty word, but it was a whole lot of fun that night.
Yeah. I think it's a shame that sometimes people have to appear to be so earnest. My show goes from the darkest melancholy and despair, which I talk about in some of my songs. This obvious thing is about my own depression and things like that.
Other elements of my music are about taking control of your life, about having your future in your own hand, about not believing in destiny, not believing in fate, but creating your future, not being a piece of driftwood on the ocean, but making your own boat. And it's that kind of thing and then saying, well, we know all know why we're here and we're going to have fun as well.
So I think if you know a person, sometimes your best friend, you'll go out and you'll tell your troubles, the woes of your life, and other times you have a great laugh and a great crack and a few drinks and for me, that's what the show is supposed to be like, that I will open up and I will reveal to you what is inside and the darkness that's there, but also the struggle that's there to try and continue.
As difficult it is, as it is in music to continue to try and keep that going, but it's not a struggle that's unique to music to try and achieve any dream, however humble it is. I don't see my dream of being a professional musician, as being particularly grand, but it has been difficult, but it's just as important if you aspire to build your own motorcycle or even ride a motorcycle or be a good parent or be great at your job.
That is a worthy dream if it's yours and I think to try and connect with my audience and say, look, your dream, however humble it is, is as important to me as my own dream, but I'm actually living my dream when I'm on stage. People might think, oh, but you're not playing stadiums. Well, excuse me, it may not sound particularly fashionable, but I don't want to. I've played stadiums. I've played the biggest gigs that I can play. I've played in front of 70,000 people.
I've played in front of 50,000 people a night, 10,000 people a night. I want to play in smaller places. I still enjoy doing festivals, but mostly I want to play in smaller places where I can touch you where the important thing for me is that the end of the show I get to say, thank you.
I'm a free meet and greet at every show we know limit on the amount of items that you can sign and I meet every single fan that wants to meet me and have a photo with every single fan because for me, my dream has come true and those people keep my dream alive. So lucky, man. So in this day and age too, like when you're touring across the States and I know it for a fact, it's expensive and a lot of the ways to put gas in the tank is by a VIP package and meet and greet. You don't do any of that.
You don't do anything for me. I don't see any problem with doing that. If people want to do that, if that's how they need to do it, the music business has changed drastically in the 30 years that I've been in the music business.
You would be able, when I started, to have a show that cost more than the gross income from the tour and it will be supported by sales of records and CDs and you would go out there with a classic thing of let's look big and we will become big spending more than you would gross on the tour. So since those days have gone, when I joined I made an EMI closed all of their manufacturing facilities that year. So what does that tell you that they believe the future of the music business would be?
So none of that income is available anymore. There is no big income from CDs and selling millions of actual pieces of things that are made by people. So you have to find a way to get that income. For me, what I choose to do is live a humble life, keep my overhead low, live in a small house, have a reasonable motorcycle and my life is living for that music. So I don't really need to go and ask people that have already paid the ticket for the extra money. For some people, they do need that.
It is very expensive. The other thing is I rough it man when I'm on tour. I don't stay in good hotels. I stay in like when I've got a red roof in, you know, that's like luxury for me. I'm like, so I rough it man and we don't have any crew. We do everything ourselves. We drive ourselves. We do everything ourselves. And it's a different way of doing things and not everybody is comfortable or can even do that. But for me, that's the way I've chosen to do it. It's a way of life.
It's not always easy, but it is still the dream. It's a dream. Dad, I'm living and I just meet so many people. So many great people have so much support because I'm able to arrive outside the gig. The panel will be sitting there and the next thing we'll be talking about motorcycles and it'll say, hey, well, I've got a bike. Do you want to come over to my place and we'll go for a ride. Yeah. You know, I'm in my old life in a big, when I was in a really big band, that would never happen.
Sure you can't happen. It would never happen. I meet so many wonderful, wonderful people. And also what the other thing that I try and do is I always try and go back to places that I like and never return to places that I don't like. So if they don't care about the sound at the venue, I don't care what the prestige of the venue is. And they don't respect the fans. I never return, man.
There's a prestigious gig in Barcelona where I said to them before that, look, I have to have time to do this meet in Greece. This could take an hour. So you better be telling me that no one's going to get thrown out when I start signing. That's it. Oh no. And then after about four people, the security started coming up, two items, I'm like, what? I never said that. And then five foot. No, that's it. The sign is finished. I'm like, what?
So I had to go outside and sign outside the venue for my fans. So I never return. So there and another gig in Buenos Aires, the instance that I came that the gig was finished, they emptied the room. So I had to go outside on the street in Buenos Aires with 300 fans alone with no security, because the security was too scared to start next to me and sign by myself for 300 fans on the street in Buenos Aires. And I had to break up two fights that started. I stopped it though.
I'm pretty loud, you know, when I need to be. But I don't eat, man. Every one of those fans got a photo. And Anna nor to graph. But that's just the way I am, I am. That's the way I am. That's just me. And really, I don't think it means much. I don't think it gets me. It makes people like me more or get me anywhere. It's just something in me that where I've been, that the highs and the absolute lows that I've been through.
And when I had nothing, I was just working a regular job after I spent all my money for my maid and trying to make it with my own band. Wow. And I just didn't get anywhere. My silicone Messiah album completely bombed my 10th dimension album failed. My live album didn't do well. And my blood and belief album just nothing happened as well. So there was, I was completely broke in those years. But I still get emails and letters from fans saying, please carry on. Please continue.
Please keep making music. I love your music. So I see it for me personally. It's a personal debt of gratitude that I owe to the fans that kept me going. And you know, man, when things are rough, then I look at my Facebook and I look at the comments that I get and you think, yeah, I'm going to keep going. I'm going to keep going. This, I can do it. I can do it. People believe in me and they tell me that I believe in me. It keeps me going. Let's talk about this for a bit.
You mentioned about me joining the band, the biggest band, the heavy metal band. Oh, fantastic. If it's not a huge fan. You know, I mean, let's just talk about this. Before Metallica, it's bigger. Absolutely. Yeah. In legendary status at that time, no one had ever done what I am made on a done come from there to get to there, not even priest had managed to sustain that level. It's just, it's just fact. You know, do you grew up in me and say, I was a, I made a fan.
I was a priest fan, more made in than priest than ACDC and Rainbow and all the classic metal, you know, that we used to listen to guys I rage and it's just, well, it's just because you did wool spin and I had a wool spin album in Canada in about 1992. Yeah. He has a deaf American records. Yeah. And suddenly here comes Bruce Dickinson leaving in 94 and or whatever it was. Yeah. Yeah, Bruce obviously fell.
I mean, I've never really spoke to him about him leaving, but it's pretty obvious that he just, he had to have a change in his life, you know, mentally he was suffering. He needed to make that change. It's a huge job that it's difficult to understand. You know, in sports, well, you've been at the top in your field in the sport that you do.
So I often think of it in like in a soccer analogy that, you know, when I was in more Spain, I was playing in in a regular league and maybe we were near the bottom most of the time, but we were doing what we do and we were just about scraping by and everything. And then when I was in I made and then I was in the World Cup and every single night was the World Cup final and you were expected to win.
And I think you know that kind of pressure with what you've done, man, in your professional career in wrestling, it's just you know that kind of pressure. Yes. And I think that is very, very tough. And I think for Bruce being that long at the top, I mean, not just one of the legendary voices in metal, really, along with Rob Alford shaping what metal vocals were. If you think Bruce Dickinson, Rob Alford, Ronnie James Dio and a couple of other guys just were the shape of metal vocals.
And he's been an fantastic frontman for so many years at the top. I think in the end, it's very difficult to draw the line. If you if you haven't got yourself centered, then well, are people talking to me because I'm the lead singer of Iron Maiden and I'm famous? Are they talking to me just because I'm a regular bloke that you might say hello to I'm an actually an okay guy. And that is a very confusing thing. And I'd already been through that in Wolfsbane. I was so famous in the UK in Wolfsbane.
I guess we're in the UK. Well, yeah. And we're very popular with the press. They liked it. So I was in every single magazine. I was recognised everywhere when heavy metal was so big in those days. I'd already gone through this kind of crisis where you're going, well, why is that person talking to me? What are their motivations? They talk to me because they want to know something about Wolfsbane or do I actually mean anything outside of the band that I'm in and my music? Am I a worthwhile person?
I'd already been through that. And I think perhaps that was the time when Bruce was going through that. And well, very lucky for me. You opened the door to just the door with me. Yeah, yeah. I was so lucky Chris. Absolutely as lucky as anything because we had a video to go with our song. I like it hot. And it was between Wolfsbane and the Almighty and the guys from Madeden said, right, we're going to choose, we want a British support band.
It's, I think it was 33 shows in the UK of the small venues that they would never play again. Right. There was their last UK tour as what the old school way of doing it. They're in the Wolverhampton little school. Everywhere, man, everywhere. So anyway, they watched the videos and Wolfsbane video. We had football in soccer, in our video and chicks. And we would just have an gig almost at the time, you know. And so they went, they seem like they're up for a laugh. I will have them.
They look like Wolfsbane. So we got that tour. And then of course, yeah, I'm so competitive and pretty cheeky that. And every night, I would just push it as far as I could and I would be going, I'd be getting in front of the monitors. I'd be climbing up on Bruce's side fills and all of that where he used to climb up and all of that. And they would have told me to stop. So I just get going further and further as a support band man. Absolutely.
As long as you were on time and didn't just a drum riser, you could do anything you want to. And it was just crazy. We're running all over the place, climbing all up the side fills, jumping all over the monitors. Oh, most absolutely. Crazy. We're getting an encore almost every night. And I was invited to join the Iron Maiden football team. Yeah. And get this one. How big you'll know this. How big are you when you can have the Saturday off to play football?
If you're in rock and roll, you work every Saturday, every Friday of Saturday. Is a gig. You can't afford to have Saturday off. We have Saturday off. We're going to play football on the tour against the team, local teams from the venues. And like, oh man. It's still like the best tour I ever did. So Bruce left a little while after that tour. And I think the only advantage is that I really had. He's had given them my CDs on tour and had actually seen me live.
And I was able to get an audition for that gig as lead singer. And there was a lot of other guys up for it. And I think they decided on 12 guys for the final audition. And you've really put it in there. I don't know, really. I don't know. They kept it very, very close. And they didn't really tell me afterwards either. And so you learned 10 songs, which were the main 10 songs from the almost always in the set. So you had Trooper, Halibut, Inaim, Fear of the Dark, Ratschild, Hevincomweights.
I think you had Clevvoyant. No, the Beast. Yeah, number of the Beast. All the classic ones. No, or I made obviously. But normally in the set, went to the audition and just did the absolute best that I could. And I made all, I've obviously made all my own notes. But learning it from another perspective, I'd also learnt all of the drum fills and all of the melody parts of the guitars.
So I knew every time that Nico was going to do a drum fill, I would look at him and I would know that that drum fill was coming. And of course, I knew what bass drums were. I'd just studied it, man. And I just thought, you know what, whatever happens now for an hour, I am the lead singer with Iron Maiden. I'm just going to beat it, man. I'm just going to own it. I'm just going to beat it. And I didn't, they had the money to send up, set up at a far end of the room.
And I said, well, really, I don't want to stand there. I need to stand near the drums because, you know, to get my time and everything is okay. I've got to stand here. So I stood in the middle of the room with the guys. I don't think anybody else did that and had the money to there and just, oh, man, I just absolutely went to town. I never thought I would get it. And they asked me about for a second audition. And that was in the studio recording.
Well, as you know, you've suffered a lot of recording that live and recording are two different animals. It's like, live is the spotlight recording is the magnifying glass. So I did that. I think it was one of three guys that got that audition. And I remember saying to Steve Harris at the time, I said, Steve, I said, we'll be able to get a copy of this.
You know, he goes, I said, if I'm not successful at the audition, could I still get a copy of me singing in the studio because he goes, no, but we will send you a copy of the guy that gets it. That's it. That was man. And then like a few weeks after that, I mean, it's a huge thing. So a few weeks after that, that's it. A guy in touch, I think, was Christmas Eve. That said, yeah, you got it. Come to a meeting. And man, I bought myself a case of beer. And a cordless phone. I was there, man.
I was a big chocolate. That Christmas. Well, let me talk a little bit about your vocal style is different from Bruce's. Yeah, this is another reason I didn't think I was getting it. Yeah, it's a different mix. Yeah. And I think that difference, Chris, is one of the reasons that I did get it because I think Steve heard something in my voice. And he really wanted to change. Well, he's had this voice of Bruce, which is a fantastic voice and really versatile for so many years.
But there are elements of my voice and absolutely nothing like Bruce. And places that I just don't go, you know, that Bruce can go. And I think that was it. And if you listen to Son of the Cross and the Clansman and fortunes of war and man on the edge as well. If you listen to some of the big songs from that X-Factor album, you can see that it's the beginning of the progressive era of Iron Maid has been marked to change. And I'm very proud to have been a part of that.
But what I never anticipated was how generous in his time and energy that Steve Faris would be and I've written a lot of songs before then. And then to work with someone who's got multi-platinum albums and gold albums, all I've reshows. And when he says, well, try it this way. Well, if you do this, it could work a bit better. And he was a mentor to me really in many ways. And in the studio, we really found this other part of my voice, which is now the main part of my voice.
So really, I loved my work with Wolfsbane. I really found my full and true voice in Iron Maiden. Which Bruce signs with the hardest view to sing just from a range standpoint? I think that I love play avoidant. There's a couple of parts I'm clarifying, a particularly awkward. Yeah, I think it's like the iconic stream from Number of the Beast, which is very hard to do. Yeah, it's so well known. Yeah, it is. But as a vocalist, then there are techniques that you employ.
One of the classic ones, of course, he's at the beginning of Ape Top for Destruction, Axel Rose, made so famous. And that is a scream, which is really a kind of screech on the inhale and exhale that you make seem seamless. And of course, there is as well just the old-fashioned W word work and practice. And that's a big part of it, you know. And Eric Adams, the great Eric Adams from Manor War, I loved his vocal.
So I'd actually developed and learned a scream that was kind of coming from the davily Roth and Haillin early era into the Manor War Eric Adams style. So I had a pretty solid scream up there that I could scream in tune, a very high thing. So it was an incorporating that really and working and practicing on it, you know. So that's not easy. You know that one of my favorite songs, I don't even know where it comes from. Well, the easiest way around it is to go right through it. Yeah, that's it.
And that's something that's really the expected because you coming in as the singer, were the songs written already singing? No, Chris, it's incredible. It's incredible. Steve said, no music is written for the album. There's nothing, not one single song, nothing is written. And he said, it's exact words. I don't care who writes the music. It just has to be f***ing great music. And I was like, wow.
And you know, as a song writer, with Wolfsbane, I have a lot of ideas and being a big fan of Maiden. I went to Yannick Gers and I went to Steve Harris with all my ideas and melody ideas and lyrics and things like this. And we started to put the album together.
And I think I've got six collaborations on the X-Factor and I think four collaborations on virtual 11, which came after and before I actually moved on from the band before that then I had a lot of ideas that I thought would be wonderful for the third album that was looking forward to working on. What do I end up being on my first solo album, Silicon Messiah? I am a big fan of the X-Factor record, even to fact I did an interview a couple days ago for a book.
Someone's putting together, they get a bunch of quote unquote famous pieces, two favorite Maiden's. And I was like, well, what is so and so picked? And of course I was picking number of the beats. And I said, well, I'll do power slip and I'll do X-Factor. I bet you no one's done X-Factor. I love how dark that album is. And like you said, the beginning of the progressive stage of Maiden's, this hugely to this day. Yeah, yeah. You know, it's very dark though. Yes, it is.
And of course it's in a personal life not going too deeply into it. A huge amount of turmoil and change. Steve Harris or something. Yeah, in his personal life as well as he's lived for Iron Maiden, obviously, you know, just putting your family aside for him. He's lived for Iron Maiden for so many years. And at some point, he did consider that it may be the end of Iron Maiden, Bruce Leven. And I remember Dave Murray saying to me, yes, Steve did say to him one day, said, oh, man, should we...
Is this it? Should we just hang it up now and just start? And Dave said, no, I'm still... I'm still having fun, I'm still enjoying it. Forget it. No, we'll keep going. And he's going the world. Yeah, and that's it. He's so, so happy. So I think it was a lot of turmoil, a lot of darkness going on while we were recording, while the writing was going on. You know, management gave us as much time as you wanted. They said, we don't care.
If this album takes a year to make, just make the album that you want to make. And it was so cool. It was dark, you know. There was a lot of darkness there, but in a way, I suppose, because of the kind of person that I am, there is this melancholy and there is this darkness that I'm attracted to. And it still shows in my writing since Maiden.
And I think one of the songs that I had fortunes, fortunes of war, and look for the truth, look for the truth is an amazing thing that is so unusual, but to be in a situation, writing that song and feel it recorded with the drums of Nico and everything. And then months later, to be in a hotel room, just like this, and in Poland, in Krakow, and to hear fans singing, whoa, outside that hotel. You can't imagine that feeling, man.
It's even almost bigger than having a top 10 hit with the man on the edge to actually hear those fans in a situation I've never been to. I never imagined in my life I would go to Krakow in Poland to perform a concert, to be there. And those hardcore Maiden fans singing a song that I wrote with Iron Maiden was incredible. It's just incredible, incredible feeling.
One of the proudest moments of my professional career, just a moment in a hotel room listening to some fans singing, but a huge feeling of pride. How was it for you? I mean, you've got a group of guys, including Rod Small, where there's five guys that have been there for years. Was it hard to come in as the new guy? Did they make it easy for you?
Yeah, I think they made it as easy as they could, but there is no easy thing about fitting into a team that has been doing things a certain way, a moving a certain way, and winning for so many years. And I had to adapt a lot of the ways that I did things from my past in Wolfsbane to the way that I made and did things. And I made and I changed over the years, and they became so big.
So when I was supporting Iron Maiden in Wolfsbane, I made and signed after every single show, but by the time I joined Iron Maiden, it was so big, it was just impossible to sign. So you do signings? Every single, after every single show, that to up to no prayer for the dying, there was a signing after almost every show. But when I joined, there was hardly ever a signing, we had to do it just too big.
I mean, the amount of time that would take to sign for the people that hung around after the Iron Maiden gig. You missed the next gig? Yeah. So for me, with my little shows now, it's very, very rare that, well, I don't sign after a show or trying to sign before a show. If I think I'm going to miss the plane, I have to get to another city, I'm going to jeopardize the next show. But in Maiden, you definitely would not make the next show if you stuck around to sign for everybody.
That was a big change from the Maiden, the all new before, and I was in that Maiden, that was so big that it couldn't have stayed. Well, was the fan reaction like, because I remember I worked a lot in Japan at the time in Burn magazine, had a big cover of you and Steve. And I remember just looking at this, like, you look crazy and cool. I mean, just to look at the sideburns and we were a lot younger than you had a lot of hair, you know, and it just looked cool.
It looked like a good looking band. Yeah. And the fans reaction, I mean, obviously Bruce has gone and you have to do the unenviable task of replacing this guy. I think it's the girlfriend reaction and nobody wants to admit it, but you always want someone to blame when if your girlfriend leaves you for someone with a bigger car and a better job, you don't want to think that it could be for that reason. And you have to find someone to blame for that situation, whoever that is.
So I felt that I had an incredible amount of support and well wishing from so many fans that just wanted I made into continue ago and went, well, that's the singer they've chosen. We better live with it and get used to it because we're stuck with him now. So it's no point bitching about it. And there's another group of people much smaller but much louder that go, we don't want this guy, we still want Bruce to get rid of this guy.
So I wish it was a bit difficult, but one of the things that Steve Herschuss decided to me was, I'll just don't worry about it. And Bruce was in the band, they were always asking for Paul to come back. He was in the band for years. Massive hits, the biggest, they're still asking for the first. So he's in that way, it was a lot easier to take. I think for some fans it's just difficult, it's your favourite band, it's your girlfriend, it's your brother.
I mean, let's face it, as a mega fan you go to sleep with I made in, you're in bed with I made and you wake up with I made in and you're wearing I made in a 60 year skin. So of course there's a big change, it's something unfamiliar, you got to get used to and I think I think it was difficult. I accepted that because I am a fan, I wasn't I made in fan and also a kiss fan.
And also I knew in one level what I was getting into and I think Bruce could never have known this and never predicted this because of the way the band took off when he joined and that is every kiss fan, every real kiss fan knows the name of every single ex member of I made and I can name them and I knew that going in that when I was in there no matter what happened in the future and I still expected to be in there, I never expected to leave.
That you know, everyone like it or not would always know every real higher maiden fan would always know that I had been a part of I made it and as a rocker and as a fan and someone who has put heavy metal music at the centre of my life then it's a huge amount of pride to have that. When people say to me, don't you get fed up that people still talk about you being in I made it, well still talk about me being like the world champion of singers. You know what I mean?
Being the number one that I in my profession does no big a job that you can aspire to than being the lead singer of the world's arguably greatest heavy metal band singing the trooper at number of the beast. You've been chosen to do that so why would I ever want to forget that? Why wouldn't that ever be something that is incredible?
It's five years of my life that changed my life, the dictated the course, the rest of my life and here I am now at something like 23 years later something like this and I'm still professional singer right in my own songs but now I have my own small record company
I tour where I want to do the things and I meet the people that support me and say thank you so I'm living my dream because I came from this fantastic thing and had this wonderful experience you know as dark as some of those moments are you can't live for that you've
got to go well man you know I'm heavy metal if whatever yeah if you cut me right now it's red metal it's not blood so that's what pleads I don't you know what I'm talking about so it's an incredible incredible thing did you ever talk to Bruce after you got the gig?
Well I talked I knew Bruce before I knew I made him personally we met in New York one of these I don't know if you remember concrete factations for him yeah those things and we met there at a gig and had a couple of points together and we met another couple of times along
the way and when I got the gig he sent me best wishes and sent me a case of different real ails and which thinking about something a case of different real ails and then he developed the ails which is because of the area so famous though and when I played in a Bridgestin
Academy he sent me a gift package which contained a yellow brick and I was like a yellow brick and he said he said I hope this is one of the first big steps on your yellow brick road to success wow and as sweet as my cool I mean that's so cool yeah and and after I made him then he's
been so supportive he had a radio show rock radio show and he had me on there and you know for this latest album I had a song called Escape Velocity and it the chorus is basically I will fly and my hands become my wings it's part of the story actually of my album and I got in touch
with him and I said can I use your fly simulator because he's got his own business where he trains pilots that's his business outside of I made him you know and he said yeah and I mean these are really expensive things if you want to go and hire a fly simulator man you go and get alone
and yeah and I went there and they just got the flight simulator going and the guy worked it all for me and made it look like I was flying the plane and everything so he's been an incredibly supportive during and after I am made and we've never had a bad word to say about each other
that's classy at all and if you ever see something that that appears on the internet that it's a bad comment that I ever said about Bruce it's an absolute lie it's someone else that said it that I've it's been attributed internet lies I've never ever said a bad word why would
sure why would I and it's been the same as a mutual respect there and when we meet we look at each other and it's just we don't even we just start smiling there's a telepathy there that yeah there's one of the other guys in the world that knows how tough this is
not getting right yeah let's talk about how I did a few for me and then I want to talk to you about your new record yeah did you you mentioned that you were writing for a third record yet yes yeah yeah did this reunion with Bruce and Adrian come out of the blue for me it did yeah
because I I never really used social media at that time it was the early days yeah yeah it was the early days of social media and I think it was just before Facebook and most things were on forums and message boards in those days and I never looked at those one of the things that I've
done in my professional life and I know it sounds pretty dumb but when I look at reviews you know always get someone else to read reviews first and and then I only read the review if it's good yeah so I I just made this point because I would get upset about what what people would say and
and so I just go you know what I'll choose now this is a this is a decision or a make in in my life I'll choose only to believe good reviews and that's it and life's been so much easier since I did that Chris yeah because in the end the only review that really matters to me is what my fans say
and if my fans come to me and say well you know I didn't like this one as much or that's you know this they're not hurt that hurts not it in a personal way but then I've let somebody down that trusted me and so that's the thing that really inspires me to keep going and try and do
the absolute best that I can and make these lyrics the the best that I possibly can and give meaning to simple things and find truth in unusual places is my fans and on my last two albums then I had great support for my management and this is a difficult thing I said right no press copies
no listening copies go out until the fans that have ordered this album have received it when the fans have got the album when my fans have listened to this album then the journalists and press that's when everybody else can listen to it I'm very very small you know I'm under ground I'm a
cult artist I don't need all of that exposure I don't I don't have to chase it and so on the last two albums that I've done I was able to do that that my fans got the album first they all did it they supported me they didn't know what they were going to get but they trusted me and
they got that album and then I didn't go shit what the reviews what anybody says about it because on the message board that yeah I really like this this is my favorite song yes this is work yeah that's it that's because those are the people I did it for they invested in it they're the ones
and I've always felt this from dot in the wolf spain years I always felt and it was the horrible cash crop mentality of the 80s where bands were signed to make one album rock band signed to make one album do a ballad rock ballad and then never made another album all they were signed
and their album stayed on a shelf imagine the pain Chris as an ambitious young man with your heart your dream to be out there to be writing to recording for the thing that you've believed and loved to be on a shelf somewhere and released never to see the light of day you have
no control over whatsoever so that never sat well with me and the way they used to talk about the fans the kids the pontas I never liked it and one person who I won't name said said about my lyrics because I was agonizing with a couple of words and this is before this is
most of those in made us a totally different story made in made and it's there is no censorship whatsoever on what you write that this would never happen in no in made but this was before made and and this is why I'm so strong on it that somebody said never overestimate the intelligence of
the fans and I'm like yeah so yeah I'm a fan yeah so I'm just a dumb 10 dollars to you that's it I'm telling dollars in my pocket as long as you get that off me you don't care show me a nice picture tell me that something's great lie to me into getting make me get that album and then get something
that just was not the best quality was not the best song writing was not made well or whatever that was that always really stuck with it in made and it's a completely different thing if you think about the way that made and write and the words that are used and everything
the particular word that we got hung up on was apparition and it was in a song from Wolfsbane called cathode rakelinic apparition hot from hell that comes from hamlet apply by shakespeare and it is the start of that play when hamlet is rudely awoken and the guards say oh well we've
seen the ghost of your dad is dad's dead what do you mean you've seen the ghost of a he came at midnight the ghost of your dad came at midnight and he and hamlet said well how can that be and you've got to come with us at midnight and there is the ghost of his dad and the ghost
of hamlet's father not to throw a spoil on it because it's right to the beginning if you've never seen hamlet then he says I have been murdered and my death must be avenged because I'm in burglatory right now I can't even I can't go anywhere because my death is not avenged and that's the start of
hamlet so going back a little bit my son cathode rakelinic is about tv and it's about the things that we see on tv they come into our living room and you know exactly what I'm talking about tv goes into people's living room and that thing is actually with them in the room so whether that is
a horrific scene from the Vietnam war or from any war or some horrible devastating terrorist attack that's in your living room and that was what I was doing I was likening that okay an apparition heart from hell could be this terrorist attack that you see could be this terrible mute seeing
something awful that happened you know in reality and what right of people got to put that into our living room and stuff like that so anyway the argument went on have you got to use this word apparition and you can read as a Shakespeare fan I'm born in Birmingham I've seen almost every
Shakespeare play in strafford the place of his birth I'm like you are kidding me so that was it in maiden you never get that if you say well the chorus of this song says one thing but I don't want that to be the title because with the title I want to ask a question so then you have to
read the lyrics of the song you have to listen to the lyrics to see how that unfolds and Steve Harris would also yeah great sounds great really cool just as you judge yeah and it's like well there's no thinking that people are stupid there's no no no you think that I made them fans are
stupid no one in I made them does yes the band doesn't yes but so we were talking about how you got the news that you were out of the band did you see it on a message board or something they had no I what happened was I mean all done very well I can't complain at all Chris about the whole
thing I was fired from the band they called me to a meeting I thought it was going to be about all the two are in plans for next year and it's well it's got a long story short they said you know you're out of the band and I said this is right the only thing but this is a full band meeting
with Rod okay you know very serious done absolutely the correct way that you could do something so which for me obviously so horrible and and I said at that point I said well he's Bruce coming back and really nobody could look me in the eye after that and I said yeah I said well you know
what I said what I will say to you now is that the world has to have I made an in it and I'll still support this band and I'll never say a bad word about it and I really wish you the best of luck I am made and has to continue you know with or without me there has to be an I made an
in this world performing it just has to be it's like not having an electricity sure to not have I might in the world but the thing about it though blazing it's the same thing I talked to Bruce Kulik on the show another great guy like you are and he said when they said that they're reuniting
with Ace and Peter it's like there's nothing I can say in a bad way it's like I get it you know that's kind of what the world has been waiting for yeah for Bruce and Adrian to be coming back to Iron Me yeah yeah I mean it's not like yeah you got sucked because you're an asshole because
you weren't doing your gig right it's the only guy that kind of trumps you I think the one of the small thing it probably sounds a bit weird I felt a little bit cheated that I never got the opportunity to write with Adrian oh yeah in the band because wasted years one of my favorite very
favorite Iron Man song I love Adrian style and he's melodic style so I still think for me the Smith Dickinson songs are always the best yeah it does the certain age to it and the chemistry they have yeah which is another thing I was thinking when you talked about writing
and Steve letting you write and needing you to write not only had he just lost Bruce but Adrian a few years before he lost his big goat song writing Bruce or Steve writes some and yeah I think it's right the others yeah they're gone they need you to step up yeah and I'm you
know I suppose that's you know I'm very very lucky that's creatively I feel I was up to that and as we got deeper into it and I started to understand the dynamic between Nico and Dave and Steve musically in the writing process then I started to be quite much more excited for that
third album I was I'd got from my Silicon Messiah album I'd got born as a stranger which I thought was good to go great I thought Silicon Messiah would go great I thought the launch would go absolutely great stare at the sun would go great those are all ideas that I was I'd written I had
the choruses all the lyrics to little tiny bits of music that I was expecting would just be the third album that would make fans go this is really the new one isn't it in the business what had happened EMI closed all the manufacturing facilities Napster had offered so many musics they'd
offered their MP3 you know conversion thing to the mainstream music business that had been rejected out of hand and that's why Napster decided to make it a free thing for people to use because the mainstream music business didn't ever think they're so arrogant they never thought they would
need that and of course by the time we got to the end of my second album CD sales worldwide all item you know hard items bits of plastic are just going well done so it wasn't just the fact of the income of I made and it was actually EMI and the big record companies were all suffering so
commercial pressure came to say look Judas Priest of Hadar reunion Black Sabbath Hadar reunion Deep purple of Hadar reunion they've all been a big success you know what we think would be good yeah you can't blame anybody that's just business yeah we live with that you know that's it
you eat because you do business because you go to work and you do business that's how that's how you pay your bills so you know you can't it's horrible and it feels personal but in the end it's not personal it's business you just choose do you want to be a victim or do you want to be
the anti hero like Mel Gibson in Mad Max 2 that comes back and says because all the same to you I'll drive that tanker but that's what you did you drove the tank you mentioned all these these great records that you did I like really likes to look on the side but here we are now with infinite
entanglement it's a three part very ambitious we're going to go to the studio after this oh yeah oh yeah character in in this opera that you're writing it's huge it's ridiculous how big it is and I think if I'd have realized that the start maybe I wouldn't have have taken it on but it's
son kind of dream and not a dream in an aspirational way but something that kind of leaked into me from the future and unwound and borrowed into my mind as I as I wrote a song for my best other album called Eating Children which is about the solar system and the sun expanding into a
red giant and consuming every planet in the solar system so it came from that and we had written the songs for this album infinite entanglement and there were too many and when I looked at it and I realized I hadn't got the time to record these songs I started to think differently I thought
actually it's not one album is it in fact this song right here that is on part three of a trilogy it's a beginning a journey and a resolution and it's a full story now coming from the past that I come from where you didn't know when you were signed up to a record label you didn't know if you're
going to make an honor album it was up to them right they got you under contract and they said we'll decide if you make five albums but we'll also decide if you make one and then you get dropped and have no money and go to work a regular job again so it was a bold decision it's my own label
called Blase Byler Recordings and I have a wonderful manager at the top and I said to him this is three albums and I want each album released on the first on or about the first of March each year and I want a tour in Europe in the spring each year to support these albums and he goes
okay that's your creative vision that's what you want as an artist okay let's try let's try and do it and it's been a huge amount of work but it has actually worked but because I am independent even though I'm underground I can say what my I can set my own release date and you know what
it's like you work back you go right I'm releasing on the first of March that means I artwork done there final mix is done there final guitars recorded there vocals recorded there writing starts there and that's it and that's what we've done for the last three years
but this one has been a huge the first song was called it's called Infinite Intanglement then part two is endure and survive and I can't give you the title of the new one yet it's a bit different yeah yeah I'll phone you with that so as you said they get a huge honor to have the fans
been enjoying oh it's been it's been even worse than I it's worse in a good way than I could possibly imagine because two weeks after the first one comes out people have listened to it they've said I want the second one now and oh what no and it's a story about identity in the first part
about a man who does not know if he is human and he's consciousness unknown to him is downloaded into a machine body he wakes up in a machine body and then he has to decide what does it mean to be human I think as a human I feel as a human but I have a machine body what is it to be human
and he has to find out what it is it's the way it is it's mainly on a huge science fiction fan and the real part of the inspiration comes on the book do Android Stream of Electric Sheen was vastly different to the film you know if you've read it it really toys with reality and what your
perception of being human and being real actually is so it comes from that really and you have to decide for yourself what it is to be human in many ways in the modern world you have to decide what it is to be human are you are you worthy of respect or not and what is it that makes you
worthy are you a good person you know and it's my belief that we should all aspire to try to be good people and to help each other wherever we can help each other and to avoid bad things and selfishness and greed but that's the first part of that story he wakes up on a spaceship
realises he's on the other side he's on a journey to the other side of the galaxy to a new planet discovered by Kepler Space Telescope and he realises he has a machine body and he has to decide what is it to be human that's the first part of the story that's leaving earth and going on this journey the second part of the story endurance survive it's a journey of a thousand years there's no warp drive there's no faster than light travel it takes over a thousand years to get to the nearest
earth like planet and so you've got to be alive you've got to endure a thousand years you've got to survive at the end of it because in the end of the story of endurance survive they don't want him to get to the planet it was never a part of their plan to allow this person to get to that
new planet he's actually been brought onto this mission to kill every other crew member and their bodies are ground up and used as fuel for this ship and there is genetically perfect DNA stored on that ship which will grow new genetically perfect humans that will populate
the new world just as the conquistadors and all of the colonialists populated the new world and the new countries just like they treated the Native Americans and the Aboriginals in Australia it's a metaphor for that part of the story so they try to destroy him before he can get to that
new world they try to discard him and treat him as trash now he's not useful anymore we'll throw you away so the third part of this story is starting now right it starts what happens after that at the end of this story we leave him in space clinging to the outside of a spaceship
he doesn't need to breathe air or oxygen he just has to survive he has turned his metal hands his fingers into hooks and dug them into the side of that spaceship and he's hanging on the outside of a spaceship as to get near the new world that is the end of endurance survive
that's what he's saying after that you better pre-order that you're gonna find out then what he's happening to him on par with you of course fans are going what happens he par 3 don't tell me they say exactly that's what they say what happens in par 3 don't tell me I don't want to know what don't
suppose the right what happens last couple of questions plays there's a tour he did last year or two years ago the Trinity tour with oh fantastic yeah riproeing incredible incredible great great meeting yeah it was so much fun so much fun yeah and we loved it man and I do you know
Tim riproeing I mean he's just he's a great guy he's like an American you he's he's the bill hex of heavy metal in other way he's so much fun to be out on tour with Tim I such a family guy as well it's just great a great person to be around Jeff tight lovely lovely guy and the way we worked
out the show is we would do a bit and then hand over to the next singer and then hand over and then be on we started the show together on stage and finished the show together on stage and we were saying you know the hits of our various bands and it was signed it off three of you seemed to you
um we sang live enough to mid-nark yeah yeah yeah so that which was really called Tim played guitar for that as well yeah so it was it was really cool it's a lot of fun when when you're looking for a hook to drop people in that would have been a good it was good yeah see and we had a lot of
interest from it but I'm so committed to I was already in the middle of my trilogy right then and I just found some time at the end of my tour and regig my recording schedule so I could go and do that and and since then but I don't know what people keep booking me I just seem to be coming more
popular I don't know why but uh that's it so we haven't found any more time but if you do the time you work yeah it's just it was just a fantastic experience I'm so busy now but I don't know why but there's something about this trilogy being set in science fiction in a future that
is believable but it's still about you as a person you coping with the difficulties of your everyday life with the challenges that people throw at you and with the lies and deceit that you often encounter in your life and I know you know exactly because your new single Judas is absolutely
fantastic I'm with the lyrics the lyrics of them and I'm absolutely fantastic he's I'm so wow no this is strong stuff man this is really really strong stuff so so you know what I'm I'm talking about the the darkness that you face and that you're faced with from other people you know
you meet so many people in life that uh we'll promise you everything and talk up that's really great game and then I think it's the classic thing of well you talk the talk well will you walk the walk because that walk man is a tough lonely op-it-dorn pride swallowing
siege of a walk and it's not everybody that's gonna make it to the end hey man last question for you what was your what's your favorite song to sing of the songs from from this trilogy live and what's your favorite made in song to sing when you were in me from so far from the trilogy from the
two that we've done I really like a song that we do called calling you home and it is the part of the story where he realizes now he's on it it's a one-way mission they always knew that but the realization then then comes to him yeah they knew that when they signed up for it but now it it's
well it's real because he's on the ship and it's every night when we've done that on stage you know we've made a lot of friends and a lot of fans have had great support and we dedicate that song to the fans every night and we say tonight we are calling you home because the song says
I'm calling you home right favorite made in song um I think you know it varies but you can't get away from the clansman you can't get away from it Chris it is something that will take on his own life for the gig it's it's so it reminds a lot of fear of the dark and then it's such a better
song live than it was in the record yes absolutely absolutely and that's the song we're fights break out to the gig and I was in I was in Belgrade Serbia and there was some big ex-ami guys in the gig there it was a pretty rough place that we were playing it'd be moved to a venue
that was basically just a room without windows underneath the restaurant and well and it was just horrible man but with the gig at the go on you know the show must go on you know what it's like you're there you think well I'm not going to cancel if it's possible to make happen we'll make it
happen and the stage is a bit wobbly and everything and it sets going pretty well doing some of my stuff a cop you know what Lord of the Flies I've done for my ex-factor album and then we start the intro to play clansman and man and then you get to that first that first chorus and of course it goes
freedom and these huge guys man make just huge ex-ami guys I mean just built like I don't know what and I they just erupt and the whole room just he just goes crazy and you feel like man this is like a battle this really is these guys you think you think man these guys have got post-traumatic stress
disorder they're back they're in a fire fight in the middle there doing what they're facing certain that we just looked at each other on stage and I know we're gonna get out of this alive Is it going to be on CNN? Incident in Belgrade, blaze mainly, man. Guys, after performing explosive version of Closeman. No, so... And you just don't know. You just don't know what's going to happen with it. You know, most of the time, it goes really great. People in Tuesday's, but there are just odd occasions.
I don't know if it's the weather or what it is. Or just the... It's a certain... Yeah, the beers. Just a few elements that come together. And there's a couple of nights on the tour. You don't know where they're going to be. Where that thing will just go crazy. And you can't have dread doing it. You have to. You dread doing it. It's gorgeous to be able to sing. And I know what I want. It's just fantastic. Freedom. Freedom. It's just incredible to sing it, man. To be a part of it.
To have everybody singing it with your car. Come on! And in a way, you become the Closeman. And I become possessed by this thing of, it is about someone seeking independence for themselves and their family and self-determination. And in a way, on outside of the mainstream music business, I'm outside of the big machine. I am the Closeman seeking my own independent, seeking my own freedom for my music to live my own way. And forget everything else that the music needs to be decided by.
You should do it this way. Oh, that's not the way. The conventional wisdom. Well, forget the conventional wisdom. I don't care about that because I am the Closeman. Ah, blazer, great, man. That's great stuff. Let's go make a record. Yeah, okay. All right, you can get Blaze Bailey's new album, Infinite and Tanglement Part Three at blaze Bailey.net. That's B-L-A-Z-E-B-A-Y-L-E-Y. .net. Of course, I am on one of the songs. Do some backup vocals. Great time working with Blaze.
It's the final album in the trilogy of albums. He's been writing and recording over the last three years. He's also touring Europe this whole summer. Looked for the dates. You get the ticket info. Also on his website. And of course, you can find him on Facebook at official Blaze Bailey. And follow him on the Twitter at real Blaze Bailey. And follow us at Jericho underscore crews because there's still a few cabins available.
For Chris Jericho's rock and resting razor at sea, setting sale October 27th for his lowest 150 bucks. You can put it in a positive hold your cabin. And once your book, remember, everything is included in the booking price. All the food, all the activities, live podcasts, stand up comedy, meet and greets concerts. The chance to see Kenny Omega and the ring. See you on a tournament. All covered. All inclusive. All for free.
When you book your cabin, the things you pay for on the ship drinks and gambling. If you don't do neither, everything is all inclusive. And you'll be able to come hang on the ship with all these guests. I'll be there Jim Ross, Jerry Lollars, Silke Val, Mick Foley, Noel Foley, Ricky Steamboat, Ray Mysterio, Raven, Cyrus Paul Lazamy from Killin the Town. Conan Disco in front of Shane House from keeping it 100.
Beyond the darkness, Dave Strader, Tim Dennis will be there telling some scary tales, scaring the pants off you. Cole Cabana, Marty Deroza, doing the unprofessional wrestling show. Brad Williams, Ron Funches, doing some hilarious stand-up comedy. Busted open radio, Dave LeGrecco will be there. Cory Taylor, Slipknot will be there doing a performance. Fuzzy doing performances. Phil Campbell, the bastard, Suns King, the stir from Atlanta. Dave Spivak, project.
You heard him right here on Talkets Jericho. The cherry bombs, the darlings of rock and roll. Shoot to thrill. The world's greatest ACDC cover band. Blues and Vosy, the world's best Aussie cover band. And of course, Ring of Honor. Presenting the Sea of Honor tournament aboard the ship. Matches happening in the middle of the ocean. Winter of the Sea of Honor tournament gets a Ring of Honor World Heavyweight Championship show on the future. Kenny Omega will be there.
Young Box, villain Marty Skull, brisco brothers, Don't Castle, Kizarian, Adam Page, Chris Daniels, J. lethal cheeseburger, Deanna Perazzo, Mandy Leon, Brandy Rhodes, Kelly Klein, Matt Tave, and Flip Gord, Delirious, Kenny King, Silas Young, the beer city bruiser, the dogs, and of course, the American nightmare Cody don't call him Rhodes. So much more to be added. We got some new announcements on April 23rd.
The cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- The cru- the cru- the
cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- the- the cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- the
cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- this pe- the cru- the cru- the cru- it pe- the cru- the cru- the tam margen- the cruabil- the cru- the cru- the cru- the cru- which effects on— Actually, I'm not gonna announce it, because this guy is gonna be on the show as they reach down to pull my shoe on. There's huge comedian. We lost Jim Brewer when he got hired by Metallica to open their next tour at Dam Lars. He got me, but the reasonable replacement of bigger value or better.
We're gonna announce it next week right here on Talk is Jericho. It's a secret. One of the funniest rock and roll comedians in the world. Let's leave it at that. He's gonna be here on Wednesday. We'll see you then in the meantime. In the meantime. Stay hard. Stay hungry. He's loving hugs in the big, you boy. See you on Wednesday, baby.