welcome to the Kindness Chronicles, where we hope to inject the world with a dose of the Minnesota nice that it desperately needs. For those of you that are new to the podcast, we decided that it might be fun to post some of the, we like to call 'em classic episodes. They're only a couple years old, but, uh, vintage, I think it's vintage. They're Vintage Chronicles. And uh, the first one is actually the first podcast that we ever did, and it was with, uh, Carly Zucker.
Hmm. Um, I remember that one. She described that her name is Rhymed with Hooker. And, uh, she said that during the podcast, kind of an uncomfortable moment for you. If that doesn't tell you what that podcast was like, she's great. Listen in and, uh, hope you enjoy. I am John Schweitzer and I am joined here with my faithful companion. Hello, John Kevin gorg. You may know him from Fox sports North. Canterbury park and Culver's drive through. I love a good butter burger. Maybe they'll sponsor us.
God. Do I love us? And would you like to introduce our special guests here? I would now most now her is a cafe and personality and that's wonderful. but Carly Zucker, you know, the voice. We love her. We adore her. Carly. Welcome. Thank you. I've gotten to know, Carly from a distance, uh, at the variety of different. Masonic children's hospital wine fests.
And I think you've served as MC you've done a whole bunch of different things, but, my last recollection was you and your husband were there and you were looking lovely and he was wearing a tux. And let's just say he wears a tux a little more. Uh, we wear loose clothes and he does look good. And he does that maroon one. He has the maroon one I love, but he's kind of got the short pants look and the no socks and got I'd love to where they'll be able to look like that.
Just one more time there are, imagine options that are endless for your philanthropy, the impact that you could have on a charity here in town, but you really seem to have embraced the Masonic children's hospital. Why? what connected you? Yeah. Well, besides our relationship with Tucker Hellstrom, which I think is well-documented in superintendent. Oh yes.
Well, T Oh, Tucker Hellstrom was when we met him, um, this sweetest eight year old boy on the planet, but also with so much personality and edge, like super kind and always very giving, um, and stories that his mom will tell our wonderful about him and how much he cared about other people. But. Tucker also was not afraid to give Jason hockey advice whenever we would visit.
And so it was, he would tell him, if he's not playing well, he'd be like, you gotta shoot more and you gotta back check his back, check harder, back, check harder. Yeah. And shoot more. So Jason got the tattoo of Tucker saying shoot more and the right the day before. Tucker passed. He gave Jason a hockey card of his, of himself and his signature on the back. So Jason got that signature too on his wrist because he's a big tattoo guy and big meaning, like a lot of meaning in his tattoos. And so.
Um, but yeah, it's Tucker was, I mean, he was such a light and he continues to be, and he cause he's influencing team Tucker, which his mom is carrying on. Uh, Dana Hellstrom has started team Tucker and does a lot for the children in the community that might not have resources for sports. And so she helps organize that and, um, Bringing people to the hospital they're called VIP's.
And so she brings kids to the hospital, our parents, um, that cause something that a lot of people don't know about Masonic, I think is the duration time people spend at Masonic children's hospital. You obviously know that really well, but when people are like, well, why'd you build the soccer family suite and broadcast studio, what are kids going to do with that for a day? They don't necessarily, or the end zone.
Um, and I mean, of course, unless you have an experience with hospital, you wouldn't know this, but. And the end zone is the Kyle Kyle Rudolph. Yep. Which is just a wonderful space for kids to go and play. Um, but families and patients are spend a ton of time. There. It can be months, it can be years. It can be on and off for years. And so. For them to have spaces there to go to and feel familiar outside of the hospital, they don't feel our hospital room, um, are super, super important to have.
And so that was one of the reasons, um, when we met Tucker and his family, something that was really important to them was to have these spaces when we would visit. Tuck her in the hospital, we'd go for treatment. We would bring our children and Sophia would come and play with his sisters because they were about the same age as Sophia. So they would go into, um, a small room that had some toys that had some coloring, but it was really geared towards young young kids. So, and it was unfine space.
They did a really nice job with it, with the resources they had. Like, that's why you give there. That's why people, you try to come in and we'd started the give 16 campaign because we were like, well, what can we do to create bigger spaces and almost more adult spaces because there's teenagers that are patients there. There are older young adults that are patients there and. They might not want, or their siblings might not want that room with the younger toys in the coloring.
So the Zucker family sweeten broadcast studio, um, was influenced in the idea that it would be another space for patients there to go and have creativity, um, a little bit more of an adult experience. And so through our experience there with chucker and just seeing what the staff does there. Um, what's provided there. We tried to build something that would have longevity and help patients feel like they're not necessarily in the hospital. It is.
It's absolutely to me, the center piece of the life that that hospital has, you know, when I take prospective donors to the Masonic children's hospital, we all spend time at the Zucker family suite, the Kyle Rudolph end zone. They've got some outdoor space that I believe John Sullivan from the Vikings played a role. In raising money for which has got some, like kids can actually go out there with their IVs and they have, a way to go down a slide wearing your Ivy.
it's really amazing how, inventive they've been with those spaces and it's like, it just, they keep getting stuck. Yes. Yes. I know. And I love that because, um, what you don't know when you start building those patients spaces are the specialty. Items or things that need to be in there being able to have a spot for your Ivy. Um, it has to have certain, um, standards for cleanliness. Of course, you know, that surfaces have to be of a certain standard.
And so when you're building those spaces, it's really important. And it's not just as simple as building a normal playground, you have to make it so that it's functional for kids that have IVs or. Are in wheelchairs or can do things like that. So, um, and that takes donors that takes people coming in because the hospital is, has enough to fund with research in their rooms and all those things.
And so it really takes people coming in and saying, I would like to build this space, um, for the patients and families there. And I know that, uh, you know, the Zucker family, the what was it? Sucker. Yeah. Okay. So it's Zucker like hooker is how I try to say it. So the weirdest thing to me, and you know, this is that in the media guide, it's spelled Z O O so of course, people are going to say zoo because that's what hoes zoo is spelled.
So people say Zuiker, that is the only thing that pet peeve Sam is that. He doesn't like being called Zuiker, but we say, I say Zucker, most of the time, it's like, if I'm saying my name to someone, I say Carly's Docker, because it's, if they're have to spell it or it's so much easier than saying like Zucker, because they're kinda like, well, is that a, is that yeah. Yeah. It does confuse people, but I'm sorry. So it's no easy Zucker, like hooker is how I say it.
And you'll always remember that if I'm like Zucker, Jason says Looker like Booker. Nah, it's more fun. The other way it is. You're never going to remember that and to get us back on the rails. Anyone who's ever been to a hospital, especially with your children. And we've all been there, um, a welcome distraction, right? And sometimes the athletes come by and they spend some time there, which is a huge distraction. And it's awesome.
But for people that are there a long time for weeks or months, or as you mentioned, Carly for years to have a space that truly the four hours on a day can be a welcome distraction. Not only for the kids, but for the families. Where they can spend time together. And you think of a broadcast studio, kids and families are always fascinated with putting themselves on the radio or on TV, go to the state fair sometime and watch like the twins will do that thing where you can do a broadcast.
People love that kind of thing. That to me is the heart and soul of what you guys put together. It was, it was done with thought and there's a process to it. And for families to have that. Yeah, I, I think it's gotta be just a godsend for folks to have something so significant at a place when they're going through a really hard time. And if you can find a day where you can make some memories and get your mind off what you're dealing with. Then that's the idea of the whole concept.
Yeah. And the, the legend of Tucker is that he had a, a Zucker Jersey. Yes. Well, it was a t-shirt that he had, and he crossed off the Z and put T so it said Tucker, so it was Tucker and Tucker. And so when they, Jason was on the visit with the Minnesota wild and when he. Um, met him by almost by chance. That truly was, it was like they had this immediate kind of serendipity. So he did that before he knew he was going to meet Jason. He wanted his name on the Jersey.
I was going to give it to whichever player stopped by. He was going to just give it to the player to give to Jason. And so he had no, he had no idea it was going to be Jason and then Jared Spurgeon and Jason were in that room and that's what happened. So it was really felt, I mean, And whether it's serendipity or failure, I know you feel like, and I mean, and I will say it absolutely. I mean, as much as people are like, Oh, it's so nice for the athletes. Like, it absolutely changed our lives.
It changed our lives dramatically from when we met him. Um, and so we would not, we would not be who we are today without that. And he had osteosarcoma bone cancer is not the same thing that Zach Soviets had. Okay. Yep. Yep. From the famous song clouds, which a few hitting YouTube hit clouds and get, grab a box of tissues. Yeah, exactly. Especially the one where Brian Cranston and all those celebrities, a single it's unbelievable.
Date phrase to host state for life and which was an event that his mother puts on. And so, um, I was able to meet him before he passed and her, yeah. Um, just briefly, but it was when he, it was right when he had, um, written the song. And so it was a cool moment, but yeah, there's a lot of very inspirational children out there, which is pretty impressive. We got another classic episode. It actually was, uh, one of the, uh, the first ones that we ever did. It was when we got to know Steve Brown.
Yeah. And Steve must have shared this podcast with his Clueless Nation. Mm-hmm. Is that what it's called? Yeah. The Clueless Nation. That's what I dubbed it. No one, we immediately, no one calls it that, by the way. We, we immediately got all kinds of, uh, people downloading and uh, I feel like Steve kind of put us on the map. And, uh, as a result, we, uh, we've invited him and he's been probably I've ever since the soul of this. And, uh, and the pay is exactly the same as it was Yeah.
When, uh, when we started. So, congratulations. Yeah. Congratulations. Enjoy Steve Brown. This was originally done on, what was it, March of 2021. Yeah, another classic episode. Joined today by a, an old pal of mine steve Brown who, provided our intro music. Steve. Welcome. Thank you. It's great to be here. Yep. Steve was, as many of, you know, the. Lead singer for Johnny clueless, a band that really hit its peak in the nineties. Yeah. Yup. What a great decade of music though.
Honestly, that was a fun decade. Are you kidding me? So a full disclosure, Steve and I went to high school together. He was a couple of years behind me, but when I was a senior and let's establish that you guys were pioneers, we were pioneers. Absolutely. Yeah. When I was a senior All of the senior girls decided to be interested in the sophomore boys. So I've kind of held a, a grudge against Steve and his, his classmates. Well, Billy idol had a nineties hit called rock and the cradle of love.
They were ahead of their time. Are they really where all the high school cheerleaders are dating the sophomore boys? You know who you are. I just remember your cheerleaders in 85 because I'm older than you are. And. Having them on WCC TV during the state tournament with the makeup, and then seeing the tears. When, when Burnsville, yes. God's country finally proved victorious. The makeup got to be a little.
It is interesting how you always want to bring up the 85 Burtonsville hockey team, or he gets the best of us many times, but not that time five. And who was the goaltender in 85. Some butter burger guy. I dunno. Well, Steve enough about captain butter burger. All right. When I originally reached out to you, you are one of those guys that just has always been such a delightful person.
I remember you in high school as one of those people that really seem to, you know, weren't really cliquey, you're friends with all kinds of different people. And I consider you sort of the embodiment of the, the kindness that we're hoping we can, impart upon people. but you also have kind of a fun story. Thank you, John. That's very nice of you and yes I'm a nice Minnesota guy and I. Played in a band and formed a band and traveled around the country. And we embodied that Minnesota.
Nice everywhere. We couldn't really shake it. And people knew who we were right away, wherever we traveled, they would recognize our accent. Or we would ask for a pop and they see their soda pop. And around here it's pop. Yeah. So, so we changed that because we didn't want people to immediately know who, where it's like, you know, you give yourself away. So yes we took a seriously, I mean, we really traveled and We opened up for lots of bands.
We really hit it hard, put out albums and, we took it seriously and it wasn't just like a party on the road. It was, we were trying to really do something. We're the most punctual sad, you know, we'd show up on time, ready to do our job. You know, we were very good at what we did. We had fun, but it was, it was a serious thing. we did a lot of St cloud state, shows and built ourselves up at the red carpet.
And then we started traveling, graduated from school and traveled all through the twenties folks that would show up at a lot of the different shows break. I want to say regulars, fans, I don't want to call them groupies cause that term gets kind of into the muddy waters and so forth. But you know what I'm talking about. folks that just loved your band and no matter where you were, if it was close enough to drive off, they went.
Yep. We did we had, so what really built us in Minneapolis is started playing the caboose every Wednesday in the summer. Oh, that's huge filter crowd up by that neck. By that fall, it was an amazing crowd. So we were very energetic band. We kind of had something fresh going. And like you said earlier, the nineties were a great time for original music. Grunge scene was in, we were in a grunge band, but it was about original something, new, something different.
All the cheesy eighties stuff, people were kind of ready for something, completely different from what they had in the eighties was a lot of fun, but it was over done. And when the nineties came around to your point, people were starving for something different. Yep. Yep. So we brought something fresh and newness, some of that original thinking from my neighborhood, like write a song and, you know, they weren't great songs.
Um, but we kept crafting them and kept working on them and, and, you know, ended up putting out albums and. I'm recording in real studios and it surpassed John. All I really wanted to do was play the red carpet. That's St. Claude, Michigan. We love it. Such success of the party houses was packed and, I was like, I just want to play the red carpet. I want to have a good crowd there. And the first weekend we played there, we played upstairs.
So they gave us like the small, small venue and that some other cheesy band played downstairs. I shouldn't say that they were like a cover band. Yeah, nice guys. But they, um, the bar. We played for a whole weekend and we packed that entire space so bad. There was no one downstairs in the main room. They should have flipped by the end of the night, I was on top of the tables. You know, we were just entertaining the crap out of these people. They were all, they all knew Al the songs already.
So it exploded because the 21 year old party house, we're all at the red carpet bar. So the bar, I was like, Whoa. And then they made a lot of money on hospital. That's great. Um, and then same thing happened in Minneapolis. We, we built a crowd there and then by the time all those people graduated. It. So it's all timing for my band. It exploded into this great thing and the bar scene was really good back then. So we had a thousand people that could booze every time we played there.
It was great. And then can't complain, you went on the road, didn't ya? We, we, we hit the road and did, uh, almost 180 shows a year for a few years there. So we, we went through three different vans. We pulled a trailer along, so we, we didn't bring PA gear. We just played in clubs that had PA systems, but we, you know, you bring your amps and your. Your gear and it's, it was very arduous. It's a lot of work, right? I mean, that's, that's a 180 that's, that's a long grind.
The biggest crowd you ever, um, I would say one of the, one of the biggest girls ever played too is about 60,000 people for the 10 year old thing, with a cheap trick. We opened up for cheap trick. No, that's cool. The Apolis were blocky used to be before they built the blocky. There was a big, huge lot there before they had the, before they started building, they had a big party. And the whole city was, you know, packed full of people.
And that was, at a time a culmination of, we had played a month of shows with cheap trick and they already really liked us. Is that the biggest name band you played with? Was there any others that maybe you were a little bit star struck when you met him? We played with so many bands. We opened so many bands, Google dolls, naked ladies, Sheryl Crow, solo sound, chip Shakespeare gear, daddies. I mean, everyone in town stained in the side to put to them a lot. We are great opening band.
Cause we were punctual. We were nice guys. We were nice people. You were reliable too. Right? People could count on you. They're going to put you on the Slade crap out of people. So air fund that my, the thing that I always like to know is, you know, who of those big bands were like the nicest, the kindest, uh, folks that you encounter. They're naked ladies as my guests, they were very nice, but you know, we didn't really, a lot of times you don't really hang with the big band.
Goo dolls are nice state. They actually. Acknowledged us, but I got to say it's cheap trick because we went on so many shows with them. Um, we were just this little van following their trailer, big bus, but, but we won over the, the tech team. So they're their guitar techs. They're like, these guys are fricking good. This is, this is a good band. So they started watching us and then they told the band about it. The band started kind of like actually, well, they play so many shows.
They don't look right. They're opening bands. They'd come on when there's this a play. But I know that they liked us because at the end of this little tour, um, they played first Avenue and we played old Garris the same night. Wow. So we didn't open for that show, but it was, we just wrapped up and they were going from, uh, Minneapolis to Chicago the next day. So we just put it out there, said, you know, we're playing old gears. Do you want to stop by and get on stage with us?
And, uh, just to throw it out there for the hell of it, they showed up now. And that's telling you that, that, that probably was my, my greatest moment of my whole career. Um, plaintiff's creation. We were, we were so tight. We were so great after that tour. Cause we watched these guys that are such pros, just, just seeing how they do it. Um, it just sort of inspired me to like, okay, just to pro to do it a pro level, just a couple of different things you'd do on stage and just how you.
How you interact with the audience? We already had it down, but it, they just, I just refined a lot of things, watching them for a month and shit they showed up. So I was one moment I looked back, was looking at my band or my drummer. I, I look forward and I see Robin Zander and Tom Peterson. And I think bunny, I don't know, there was three of them. I don't think Rick was there in the bar. He was hanging out with somebody, but Robin's, Andrew's watching us play. Oh, wow.
And then we're like, you want to get up and play a song. He got up and played a song with us. We put a stone song or something, but Oh, awesome. But I've got photos, but this is before the cell phones were really big. Right. So we don't have a lot of footage of it, but there's lots of a few photos of it. And what am I most proud of me? He's playing my guitar. He's singing in my mic and we put some grace and clearly you have to, you gotta be a good guy to be, willing to do something like that.
That some, you know, I mean, no Garris was a nice venue, but yeah. To them or rinky dink, you know, space with them. We were hardworking band. I have a story. you asked me to bring up some stories, just a couple again, we're a Minnesota, nice band playing all around the country. We played coast to coast. We put at CBGBs. We played at the whiskey really?
Yeah. To nobody, John. I mean, no one was there, but, we did play the, CBGBs two different times, but, um, it's a hard SAR thing, but we would anchor our, uh, our bar shows where you'd open for, for some band for 50 bucks. And you'd play at a college show. For more of that to help sustain the tour. Anyway. So a lot of college NACA shows. Um, we were in Des Moines. We had a good little crowd in Des Moines that we had built over the years. We still, they still come out to the dugout.
Some of those annoying people every once a year. So we get that happening. We played at a private party for one of their houses. One time, really good people. We played at this bar in Des Moines, uh, really, uh, early two thousands. And, uh, the band, uh, The outfield play deep. Yeah. So, you know, then they had a million hits in the eighties, great band. They played at the, uh, uh, taste of Des Moines. Right, right.
Before that, they came in, walked into the bar and you could just tell, as we're playing, they look like somebody, they look like they, you know, they had a couple of girls with them. It was just like, you'd expect. But it wasn't a very full night. They asked the bar if, um, To ask us if they could get up and play a song. So it was a little like you normally like w like Rob Zander, we asked him to get up. Cause we acknowledged him.
We didn't know who they were, but they said they want to get up and play a song. I'm like at the break, we're like, okay, because we're Minnesota. Nice guys. They get up. They played for a full set. Oh no, they didn't play a song. They play a full set. They just put a huge show. They were going to a bar after and they were like, Oh, we still want to play, can you guys let us play? Sure, sure. And they play a whole set.
They played like eight songs or something and they killed our crowd Well, okay. I have one more story. This is not band related. This is kind of brings it all back. John 1984. Yes. I just started high school from my little St Jude's experience to a big, huge school. I walk in and I don't really know the scenario what was going on, but, um, there was some kind of mocking of freshmen and they were in the wrong spot and someone was pointing someone out and somebody's hanging on this group.
And a young John Schweitzer looks at me, come on. This is the first time I met you. This is a young John Schwartz looks at me and goes, Hey, I was, he goes, who are you? I go, I'm Steve Brown. He goes, Oh, you Dan Brown's brother. I go, yeah, he was all right, come here. I'll show you. Here's what you gotta do. You know, like leave him alone or what was the, it wasn't like a fight, but they were just really giving you a hard time meeting all of us and kind of mocking us as freshmen.
You, John. Or the one of the first people I hadn't met, that was not from my grade. And you, if you embodied that idea that you're talking about right now, and now he's the quarterback of the kindness Chronicles. Talk about coming full circle. I said to my brother, I go to John Schwartz's. He goes, yeah, I go. For some reason, he was super nice to me and I wasn't prepared for anyone to be nice to me. That's so cool. And I always remember that I was like, John Schweitzer is one of the first.
Older guys at high school that was kind of guiding me under the wing. The whole thing. Sincerely, there were guys from your grade, you know, Tony Yokum and John Shulkin and you, and they're just that class was a great group of guys until. Yeah. Took our senior girls away from us when you were sophomores. That's where we draw the line in the sand where it all changed. You just say shoe store. That's pretty neat. Well, good for your Johnny boy. Well, now I'm going to have to go redo my makeup.
Yeah. Get a little salty discharge coming out of your eye. There it'd be in here. So I put on the guy? Liner Cooper starter set. Yes. Very nice., and off we go. Bye guys.