MICHALE GRAVES Signs to E.A.R. / VMG & “God Bless America Tour 2026” – PipemanRadio Interview

0:04 Hi, you love done to censure. I'm w for se wow for you yours. On the eve of some books Mussels. This is the pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe Man W four c Y Radio. And I'm very excited about our next guest because there's not only some exciting news, but I just think he's like one of the coolest in the industry.

0:47 So let's welcome to the show. Michael Graves, how are you. I'm good, fight, how are you? I'm doing good? So very exciting that you signed uh to ear VMG and distributed by Virgin Music Group and you're announcing a spring tour, God Bless America Tour twenty twenty six. So I'm going to start right there. I want to know what that means to you, because everybody puts their own meaning to things, and to me, this is the best America type of thing I've heard.

1:27 And I don't know how long. Well, I've been back and forth across the country so many times, and the country's not only beautiful, you know, as I'm looking out the window and all the different places I get to go and see, but the people itself. And I was thinking, how can I express, you know, the majesty and the beauty of everything that I see when I'm when I'm out there, including like I said, the people and the and the the interactions that I have and just the whole thing. And I started thinking about the anniversary of the country coming up in July, and I wanted to it to be called, you know, something positive, something wonderful, and so I called it God Bless America Tour.

2:21 That's why I love the positive part, you know, And it is true. I think a lot of people don't even realize, you know, when you drive across this whole country, there is so much to see and so much majestic stuff and so many different I'll even say cultures, you know. To me, going to each state is like going to a different country. Sure there is, there's there's so much. There's so many different things to experience. And see that again when I find myself saying, she's got God Bless America, this is this is amazing in your right there there is there's so many different things to see. I mean, from the from the oceans to the mountains to the flatness of the middle of the country. It's just amazing. We live in a really wonderful place.

3:17 Totally And you know, listen, I grew up in Jersey. I was born in New York, but grew up in Jersey. My dad moved me to LA in nineteen eighty wild time to move to LA. And now I live in South Florida, And I can say honestly that all three places are so totally different, and there's cool aspects of them all, and even the people are different, you know. And I find like there's people like my ex wife, her grandfather never left his street his whole life, much less to town, and I think everybody needs to get out there and just see how other people live, how other people's environments are, and the difference is. I think we would get along a lot better by understanding where we're all from.

4:08 Yeah, I love that trend. I think it was maybe before the pandemic, remember the trend that was happening where there were all of these you know, the influencers, and they would right and they would go in the vans and they would have like their van life, and they would blog and send videos and it was a really cool sort of revival of that wander lust that so many people you know that that I guess in more in like the sixties and the seventies, I think there was you know a lot of people that would just they would hitchhike across the country. They would totally just they would just go out. Yeah, I've always had a wanderlust. So yeah, I think that you're right. I think that I think that there's there's something very human about moving around like that and getting out of the bubble of your life. It's it's really does something positive, totally totally.

5:04 And I also want to talk about something that I think is really cool about you that maybe most people don't even think of, because I'll even talk about it was very funny. I saw something today. It's funny that happened today interviewing you, because I saw this posting on next door, which is this community app that I don't find it very much of a community app. I find you, like, pretty negative. So this person comes on. They take a picture of somebody who has this shirt on and it looked like it could have been it was hard to tell because it was blurry, like from Nightmare before Christmas, because it was like this skull with a Santa hat on and a Christmas tree. And she just started going off on this person and now they must be demonic and blah blah blah. And I even remember being in high school and wearing like my hot Ozsie Diary of a Madman shirt and people coming up to me and clean my own cousin like you're a devil worshiper, and it's like I'm thinking myself, you're just an idiot, because it's just a skull.

6:14 It's the meaning you put to it. But like even Ozzie, he wore across his all the time, he was a devout Christian, you know. And so I love that you have this same message. And that's how this whole you know, collaboration I'm gonna call it you signing you know, came about because you have this strong Christian positive message. And I want to make sure people out there know about that because if they think of like old school misfits, they might think something different. And it's just it's just entertainment. It's not, you know, anything beyond that. In my opinion, you look.

6:55 At my my lyrics and my content that I've put out all the way back into the Misfits, if you really start to kind of take it apart, you'll all of a sudden you start to see the Christian message or the positive message that is in there. And you're right, you know, And I've gotten a lot of pushback to over the years from you know, people like that, like the people that you just describe, like, oh, how can you how can you love Jesus or how can you have this you know, this Christian perspective and your face as a skull and all you know, the the images that you use, you know, and and the way that the filter that we use or that I use in the whether it's misfits or Michael Graves and many you know, when I'm singing about fallen worlds and angels or the darkness or all these things, like you said, it doesn't necessarily make it demonic as well. You know, for for me, what what makes why would I you know, put out images or or go to places where there are already you know, believers, Like that's like walking into a church full of believers and trying to convince them of something that they've already believe. We're fishers of men, we've and we've already caught them, you know, they're already believers. Well then who's going to go out to these kids that

8:27 they're not going to listen to anybody that's going to roll up on them with the you know, you know, the blouse is on, or the loafers and hello, you know, let me tell you about Jesus. That's just not going to get anywhere. You know, that's not going to get anybody in the door. I do it a different way. I love it. That's so smart though. I mean I think about it, like you had me have a flashback of one day. I had like Slayer blast them through my guitar amplifier, and I had my Aussie shirt on, and I can knock on the door instat Jehovah's Witnesses and as a teenager being funny, I'm like, you know what I'm gonna do? Tell them, Yeah, I'm a devil worshiper.

9:13 No, thank you. But like that what you just said reads right into it, because I was knocking to listen to these people knocking on my door. Okay, just not right? Yeah, And and the kids that need it, you know, in music and this kind of place that I come from. In music, there there are there a lot of young people who are lost, who are hurt. There's a lot of substance abuse, there's mental abuse. There's there's all sorts of things that that in my opinion, that that faith in God and knowing Jesus could really you know, can help and change his people's lives. And again, you know, you know, mister Flanders walking around with these kids are going to eat him alive. Michael Graves hanging out with you talking, and it's a different.

10:04 Different no, no, no, no, like I would have thrown Flanders into emosh bit. Yeah, me too, me too, you know, and so and it's funny too because like I think of certain things like that all the time. That's why I love your message and you as a role model, because like you take tom rijoh Slayer, he's he's a total Christian. And a lot of music that sounds like devil music is really talking against the devil. It's just because it's loud and heavy, it must be demonic, you know type of thing. Yeah, And it's reflecting the darkness, the bad, oh, the bad that's in the world. It's reflecting back the world.

10:45 It doesn't necessarily paint it or start to pipe in demons. It's just the opposite. How can we we're supposed to know that world, we're supposed to understand that world. And the more we show that world, the the easier it is to talk about the light. You got to understand the darkness to give the light, for the light to shine through, and to have it be more understood. That's so true. I love it. So what is it that keeps you going in music here all these years later? My desire to get to people I and do exactly what I'm doing. I love music, obviously, I love I love creating music and performing, but I love the interactions with the people. Like I said, I've come across people, you know, I hear a lot of stories about again, loss and hurt and all of these things that the world brings out of us. So I continue the music the way that I do because from the time I remember, I've always felt my duty was to serve people, to help people, to be a light in the world. Quick story.

12:03 I was an EMT for for a bunch of years, and I started to start of walk away from music a bit, and and I would pray a lot like Lord, I'll go where you want me to go. I'll do what you want me to do. Is this is this what I'm supposed to do? Is this where you want me to go. One day, I got a call and I responded to a man who tried to commit suicide. He stepped in front of a train. It didn't kill him, it just busted him up real bad, and the whole you know, we packaged him up, got him in the ambulance, and I remember silently praying again, like God, these like I you know, I don't like seeing people bust up. I'm a really good medic, you know. Heavy rescue train responded to more calls than I can remember, but I but it clicked in my mind. Whether it was God talking to me or whatever. I remember saying, I want to get to people before they step in front of that train. And that was very profound thought in my mind.

12:59 And after that I I redoubled my efforts and dedicated myself to music. I want to get to people before they step in front of the train. Man, That's what there it is. I love it. And you know it's funny you're telling this story and I think of like George Foreman and he got knocked out by Ali and then he became a minister and he thought he shouldn't be boxing as a minister, and then he came back and won the heavyweight championship once again. So like and here you are, you're going to be touring. I love it, and uh, I'm so glad that you're putting out, you know, some positive energy and music for us all together so we can change some lives because I think we need it now more than ever.

13:50 Amen, I believe. I believe that as well. Well. Thank you and thanks for being on the Adventures of Pipe Man. Hi is Michael Graves and you are watching the Pipeman Show on W four c Y Radio. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Pipemin on W for c u I Radio.