Band Names, Hecklers, and Hotel Mishaps: Oleander Opens Up at Aftershock 2026

0:04 Hey, you're listening to Adventure on W4CY Radio. This is the Pipe Man here on the Adventure's Pipe Man W4CY Radio, and I'm here with. Doug and. Thomas from Oleander. And by the way, I was a Pipe Man once, too. Which pipe, though? Well, the kind you turn 10 to 2, but we'll talk about that another time. I was the kind you lay. See? Yours was more fun, Doug. And then there's another kind. Look at the logo. Oh, I like that. Yeah, I don't know anything about that one, buddy.

0:46 That's the surf pipe right there, you know? Tommy don't surf, unfortunately, yet. Well, here's the thing that's funny about what you just did. One of the questions I never fucking ask because it's the stupidest question ever is, how'd. You get your band name? We'll be the judge of that. Okay. But almost every band asked me how I got my radio name. It's pretty funny. I'll ask you officially. You ready? Yeah. How'd you get the name Pipe Man? Because my last name's Piper and it was just a nickname somebody gave me like a long time ago. No meaning. Just like a lot of band names. Like when they ask you, how'd you get your band name? I don't know. We were sitting around the bar and wrote it on napkins.

1:26 So ask us how we got our band name. Oh, you're going to make me break my rule? You're telling me what to do now. Hey, I'm Bossy. I'm disagreeable. How did you get your band name? I don't remember. Nice. It's just a nickname, man. It doesn't mean nothing. I mean, I could make up some big bullshit story, but the reality is we were fucking out of our minds stoned and decided that was. The name of the band. See, that's what I'm saying. They wrote it on a napkin or something. Hey, why don't we call the band this? That, and we didn't really dig Munchausen by proxy. That would be kind of a cool name. Or Leachie Berries. Leachie, yeah, no, no.

2:06 Although Thurman, JoJo Monkey Butt had some clout. I think that would have stuck, really. JoJo Monkey Butt? Yeah, I like that one best. Well, there's a story behind that, but that's for the next time. You don't want to tell me this story now? Yeah, I grew up fucking thinking my name was Jojo Monkey Butt. That's what my mom called me until I was formative. Until I got to school and somebody goes, hey, Thomas. And I'm like, who's Thomas? My name's Jojo Monkey Butt. It was either Jojo Monkey Butt or Bobby Buttless. You know, parents are so fucked up. Like, let me tell you what my son still talks about to this day. He's going to be 42 years old. And he said, like, he was in first grade. And he was lying about something.

2:51 But he was doing the stick to his guns, deny until you die. I'm like, I'm giving you one last chance. I have a surefire lie detector test. And if you're lying, it'll tell me. And he stuck to his gun. So I took a glass. I said, here's what we're going to do. I'm going to pour some water in this glass and some oil. I'm going to shake it up. And if the oil rises to the top, you're lying. You fucked that kid. Oh, man. Middle school. He's in the middle of chemistry lab. And in the middle of the whole class, that fucking asshole. That's pretty damn good. You know what the worst question to be asked by your wife is? Is there something you want to tell me?

3:35 Oh, boy. Yeah. Yeah, that's not good. No. But, you know, the Robocop drop down, you know, that you're like, porn, didn't vacuum, porn. No. Yeah. No. Well, the answer's always no. You know? Because that's true. Because I don't want to tell you. It's true. It's true. Here's the problem with the wife, though. You do the same thing to her. She says no. You believe her. Just move on. Well, I don't care. Yeah. Typically. See? There you go. That's why the answer's no. Yeah. Well, it took me a few years to figure that one out. Just answer honestly. I'm divorced twice. I don't think I figured it out yet.

4:16 Well, there's a third time's a charm, buddy. I always say that, too. But the problem is, I'll probably pick wrong again the third time, I'm sure. It's either third time's a charm or you strike out. I've been benched, so I don't strike out. That's much safer. Exactly. Aftershock. Yeah. Fucking badass. Have you guys played Aftershock before? Yeah, we played the first one. The first one? We did. See, that's badass. I was here at the first one. I wonder if I interviewed you at that one. You didn't even know or care who you were. No, I didn't give a fuck. No, of course not. I'm stuck in here in this hole. Like, I have on my app, I put all the sets I want to see for today. And as I'm going through the day doing interviews, okay, missed that one. Okay, missed that one.

5:05 Oh, good. I can catch the headliner. Yeah, but you're working, dude, and so are we. Yeah, exactly. And, you know. Listen. Not that it isn't a labor of love, though. We have it in the background. I always can sit and listen to it during the interview, you know? And it makes great background, atmosphere. Like, man, you want me to cut that out? No, it's fucking atmosphere, man. Yeah, unless it's Avenged Sevenfold or something, then it's deafening. Yeah, we don't want that. Yeah, whatever. How about The Slayer? Guys, we've asked them to turn it down multiple times over the years, but, you know, whatever. Yeah. Who listens to us? You know what? You should be headlining. And then you can tell them to turn it down and they have to listen. They'll be like your opening band.

5:49 Maybe next year. One can wish. That's right. So. What is it that even got you into music so much that you wanted to become a musician? You want the honest answer? The fucking honest answer. All right, well, fuck it. I grew up a skinny white kid with the last name Flowers. Couldn't play baseball for shit, but tried. Got sick and tired of people fucking bullying me and calling me every name under the sun. One day I decided, fuck you. I'm going to do something you're never going to be able to do, and I'm going. To fuck your chick. And I played baseball. I fucking dyed my hair black. I had no idea what fucking instrument I was going to play or what I was even going to do. Systematically, down the road, I meet this guy, and the rest is history.

6:31 What about you, Doug? Yep. There you go. There it is. I borrowed a bass. I did it just to fucking party, man. I borrowed a bass to join a band. I didn't even know how to fucking play. You know what? Just borrowed a bass, joined the band. There it was. See that's badass because like i played guitar i played drums i sang thrash metal sucked at all three so i decided to do. This man you do what you're good at exactly. You gotta realize like what's the dedication to like randy rhodes was like fucking an idol to me and then i found i practiced eight hours a day to get like. Down like oh yeah that ain't gonna happen.

7:13 But for somebody that's really, really, like I'm really into music, I was probably not really into playing the instrument. But for somebody really into music, like you guys, that is what you do because you want to do that all the time. Yeah. For me, more now than ever, to be honest with you. What makes it more now than ever now? Because we're having fun. You know what I mean? It's just we're in a different place. We've been doing this so long. See, the funny thing is people think we kept retiring or you know whatever we just we stop doing whatever we're not having fun and then we come back and do it when it's fun again and right now we're having a great time and I don't want to. Stop that's the only way it should be by the way and we can tell as the listeners especially on a live show we're watching you up there and we can tell if you're having a good time and then we will or if you're like bored how can we be having fun if you're up there bored or not not.

8:10 Happy It's kind of hard to bullshit a bullshitter, buddy. No doubt. No doubt. What's your favorite part of playing a live show? Favorite part of a live show? Well, I could tell you what's my favorite. Part of touring. I'll start there. Let's do that. It was back in the day waking up on the bus and getting off the bus and going, where in the fuck am I and where's the hotel? Right? Yeah, it was an adventure every single day because you go to bed at like 1 or 2 at night on the bus and you wake up. In another city, and you have no idea what direction you went. And then, of course, he goes, oh, as he's on his way into the hotel, oh, look, there's Flowers drunk again on a treadmill.

8:51 This is true. Now, as far as the show goes, you know, I love it when Tom fucks up the lyrics. That's always fun. Well, and I do that from time to time. He's going to do it today. Don't say that, dude. Let's put it out there. Which song are you going to fuck up today? We'll just put it that way. I mean, it's always the hits, right? Let's put it this way. It's the ones where I'm literally watching people in the front row singing them, and I've got the words wrong. And for a minute, I'm like, no, you fucked up. And then I realize, oh, I fucked up. Oh, yeah. See, that's the best part of live music, and especially old school bands, because like These new bands, like, oh, if my laptop's not working, I can't play. I love the idea of it's just raw and you're human beings and you're going to fuck up. I was talking about this yesterday. One of my favorite memories was the Us Festival 1983. Van Halen was headlining. They start Ain't Talking About Love and Dave Ain't Singing. And they're looking at him.

9:56 And he looks at the 300,000 people and on the mic he says, I fucking forgot the words Best memory I ever had And the whole crowd cheered Like it was the best thing that ever happened Except one dude He did heckle There's always one dude But Dave was great at handling hecklers He turned to him and he said I will fuck your girlfriend So both the things you just said were all included in that memory. Well, and me and Dave had a lot in common. See? Except for the bank account. I bet Eddie didn't dig it, though. I'm sure he didn't. Yeah. I don't think any of them dug it. You know who else is. Good at dealing with hecklers is Les Claypool. Oh, really? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I saw him. Yeah, he was getting some shoes thrown at him in Phoenix. one time and uh and he uh stopped and he told him next time you want to throw your you know we're friends here right so next time you want to throw this shoe up here at me why don't you do me a favor as a friend spit on the end of it and shove it up.

10:55 Your ass nice i like that so so he. Reminded me we played a we played a festival in oklahoma right and uh it's not going well right. It's at rocklahoma Well, no, I don't. It was the Tulsa. It was a Tulsa radio. Oh, OK. But we weren't playing well. And at one point I see this fucking giant shadow flying by my head. I'm like, Jesus Christ, a bird. I look down. There's the biggest set of keys I've ever seen in my life. Like fucking jailer keys. It was like I couldn't believe it. And I look down and I'm like, that motherfucker hated me so much. That he threw his shit. He's not going to be able to work at home. The storage unit, the security and safety. And the funny thing is, I threw it back into the audience and it came right.

11:40 By my head again. Oh my God. So that was a pivotal moment in me learning how to deal with hecklers. You know, and I don't even get that shit. Like, if you don't like it, just walk away. If you're a festival, go another stage. Whatever. Why are you throwing shit up at the band? I don't get it. It's an interactive experience. Yeah. It's the virtual mosh pit with the band. I remember Cracker used to taunt the fans. I remember in Biloxi, they taunted them. They told them, Biloxi, bring me your dumbest male to be interviewed. Yeah, that didn't go well.

12:20 Yeah, we wrote that down on a sheet of paper not to do... Please don't do this as a reminder. Yeah, what not to do in this situation. So in that realm, in all the years you've been doing this, what's the one thing you did that you should have wrote down beforehand not to do? Why don't you all come in out of the rain? Oh, fuck, man. We played a semi... It was a shed. Go ahead, tell them about it. It was a massive shed in Indianapolis, and... And it was one of those radio shows, you know, you play. We were right up before Everclear. They were headlining. And as we were playing, you know, there was an uncovered area, grassy area up at the top. And it started raining.

13:04 And Tom decided to invite everybody in out of the rain. And not imagining that they would take him up on it. I did not think they would. And they all took him up on it. And, you know, some people got hurt. Not bad. Property was broken, and we were immediately banned from performing in Indianapolis. Wow. Well, maybe you'll be like Ozzy. Ozzy found out he didn't really pee on the elbow, and they restored his right to go there. And he snorted a line of ants. Right. You know, look at what he got away with all the years. Like, how did he do that? But he did eat the bat's head. Did he?

13:44 I don't know. Fuck, I don't know. Well, he did, but by mistake. Probably. He thought it was a rubber bat. And he bit it. So, yeah. But he did bite the dove. Like, he did a lot of things. But why was he one of the longest living rockers? Maybe that is the key to do all that shit. I'm not eating any animals on stage tonight, Doug. I'm just not doing it. So don't even ask. The fans were really looking forward to it, though. Yeah, we've seen it in the comments. You know what I really need tonight? Fuck I Walk Alone and Why I'm Here. I need to see Flowers eat an animal on stage. See, there you go. You'll be like the news of Aftershock.

14:27 I don't know if it'll be good news, but... Whatever. All press is good press. Yeah, there you go. See? Again, Ozzy. Look at how big he got after he bit the bat and the dove. This is true. Richard Gere in the gerbil. Yeah. I can't believe you brought that up. But still... He represents the acting community. It's an animal. He's one step away from an entertainer. It's an animal. He's an entertainer. Sometimes gerbils find their way into your ass. Has that happened to you on stage? Not that I'm aware of. A gerbil in his ass? No. Not that I'm aware of. Okay, good. Not recently. Not recently. That's for another day. Anything else.

15:10 Before I let you go, you want to tell the listeners about that they should need to know that's actually important about your band. Yeah, it's actually important. Go ahead. You know, dude, that's a fucking really hard question because every band, your autopilot is to say the correct thing. We're back and we fucking appreciate you and thank you so much and all that. And we're thinking about writing new music. Well, we are. And that's great. We haven't stopped, actually. Exactly. But we are, and we're fucking back at it because it's fun, and we have every intention of continuing to do this until it's not fun again. But the reality of the situation is, as cheesy as it sounds, we are grateful for all the support that we've gotten from people over the years. And the funny thing is, in the old days, it used to be about how big our dick was, right?

15:55 Yeah. And that's just not even where the juice is anymore. It's fucking the before and the after. It's making those people that took their time and spent their money to come see us enjoy and walk away from it. Dude, we played a show in Vegas over the weekend, and there was a group of people that flew from Canada, and there was a group of people that flew from Florida. And as soon as I fucking. Found that out, I mean, it was like, man, I'm hanging out with you until you're ready to leave, right? And I asked them specifically, I go, did you just happen to be in Vegas and saw that we were playing? They're like, no, we've been wanting to see you since 99. Wow. And it's like, how do you fucking beat that? That is the best feeling right there. You know what I mean? So it's like that's... I came all the way from Florida. That's the juice, bro. Yeah, I do all the Wimmer festivals.

16:38 But yeah, I live in South Florida. It was nice to come to California where it's hotter than Florida. I never said that before, but I can't wait to go home to cool off. Well, that's really where the juice is. Yes. I think that's amazing. And one of the things I also think is that's what makes you guys true musicians because. You did have that. Thing way back when and you matured, but you're still doing it and you understand things. I've seen it like the 80s metal scene in LA I was involved in. Most of the people that became the hair metal were assholes and arrogant, egomaniacal. But like Bret Michaels nowadays... is like the most humble, nicest guy. And he was probably number one on the arrogant ego then.

17:27 That's really interesting because I never would have thought he does a really good job of presenting himself, even back then, as like being the nice, approachable guy. Yeah, no, back then he was like, I'm, you know, I'm Bret Michaels. I'm cooler than shit, you know? You know, we all grew up, right? And that's the way it should be. But that's what gives you longevity. If you still stay that way, you're not going to have the longevity. Well, I'm going to hold you to that. All right. We're anticipating a very big year for us. I'm putting it out there. It's going to happen. Well, fucking A, Pipe Man. And you're going to headline all the DWP festivals. I want Danny to hear that. Hey, if you have any, from your lips to God's fucking ears, let's do this, buddy.

18:10 No doubt. Well, I'm glad you're here at Aftershock. That's badass. And thanks for being on the Adventures of Pipe Man. You're welcome. Thank you. Thanks, man. Thank you for listening to The Adventures of Pikeman on W4CY Radio.