Pipeman Interviews Spin Doctors at Bourbon & Beyond 2025

0:04 Hi, you love done too? Yes, that's true. See why for you young. This is the Pipe Man here on the Adventures Pipe Man W four c Y Radio. And I'm here with Chris Barron of the Spin Doctors. And Eric Shankman of the Spin Doctors. Nice here at Bourbon and beyond this, sir, and we have the triple play. This is the last day of your tour with Jim Blossoms and Blues Traveler and you're all playing here. That's right, yeah, all together, we're keeping the outfit together.

0:45 How about that new cover song? Are you guys gonna play it together on stage, all three of you? Yes? Yeah, we've been doing Oasis is Don't Look Back in Anger and it's just killing man. What a great song, What a great band. We've been saying all summer long, like Oasis is winning this. I think we were close second. Close second. Yeah, No, it's good and everybody's we get somebody from each of the band's is going to come up. So I love it. I love it. That's why I love when bands are on tour and they all play the same day of a festival, because you just never know what you're going to expect. I don't think we've ever done that, have we? I was surprised, like it was surprising that this is happening in order. It's cool, It's really cool. It's easier on you guys too, right, Well, you know, we get to stick with the program, and we like to kind of.

1:27 I like to do the same thing every day. I need structure because I'm a lead singer. And it's definitely easier to find the buses when they're all together because they all look the same. So I know, right I walk by, I'm like, you would never know whose buses who out? Yeah, all summer long, we've been like, our bus is the one with the trailer, but there's like, you know, fifty buses here with trailers. Right, Yeah, but the Jim Blessons have a red bus, so it stands out. I just look for the red bus. They had to be different than that, Yeah, they do. So, how has the tour been so far? Like through the whole tour, do you have any great stories from the tour. We've had a really great time. We ended with a bit of a ruckus because Poper John Popper, the Great John Popper of Blues Traveler, world famous, best harmonica player in the world, incredible singer. He got taken out with COVID, so it was like, how we gonna like make the gig happen. So I was like, I will sing, but anyway, hook and run around with you guys so we can make your show happen. And like I was like, I got this. And then I started listening to this stuff because I've heard I grew up with John Popper and went to high school with him. I've heard those songs a million times, but like from the side of the stage, can't quite hear all the lyrics. I started digging into it because I had to sing it in like four hours, you know, And I was like, what have I gotten myself into? But we kind of went out there and just reballed it. And so I did two gigs like that, thinking okay, well what else could possibly happen? And then the other day a little rock Arkansas, Aaron trips on the sidewalk and breaks his elbow. So we're finishing out

3:00 the tour with our great friend Van Romaine, who's doing a great job filling in on Trump's But you know, it has been a little bit crazy, wouldn't you say. Eric, Yeah, it's been crazy. I can't believe that we've actually found somebody to fill in. So COVID busted elbow. Something else happened to at the beginning, What the hell else happened? There was some other thing that seems like a million years ago. Yeah, I think dinosaurs room the earth and a comet hit or something like that. And then you guys almost didn't play today because lightning hit the first wheel last night. Yeah, luckily it didn't hit anybody. Yeah, people get online and find the picture of the lightning hitting the ferreshel because it's incredible. I just heard. I heard though apparently that happens all the time here, Like can you imagine all the time lightning hitting the first Well, it might be time to take the first.

3:44 Wheel back or like put up a lightning rod or something. You know, don't go up, just don't go up with a lightning storm. You know. If you hear lightning, if you hear thunder, get off the Ferris wheel. That's the spin doctor's advice to you ladies there. It is so I think it's so so cool what you were saying, because that's live music, okay, Like live music is full of fumbles, mistakes, things happening and I think that's what makes it great. Oh yeah, people love to see the fallibility of humans on stage, you know what I mean. Like, it's just something that people love to see. If it's too perfect, frankly, it's a bit boring to me.

4:24 Me too. Like one of my favorite memories ever was the nineteen eighty three US festival, Van Hawin's headlining and they start to play. Eddie starts playing and talk about love and he's looking over at Dave because Dave's not doing anything. And then all of a sudden, Dave goes to three hundred thousand people, I fucking forgot the word. Yeah, man, and they all roared everybody else like. That was the best shit ever. Yep, except one dude. One dude heckled him and he arned to me, goes, I will fuck your girlfriend, And that's rock and roll.

5:05 Well, you know, that's one way of handling things out here in the world of rock and roll. That's I know that guy. But we know a lot of examples of that dude right right, And you know what, he's probably it is probably not gonna work out for him, so hot. Yeah, that's usually what I call the I love you hate you guy. I do right, Yeah, yeah, and he's the and that's the guy who ends up like alone that night too. So I want to know what it is that's kept you coming back year after year all these years, Like, what is it that drives you to keep doing this? No fucking idea. I got two answers. I got two answers, like one the music to these guys. I don't know how these guys feel about me, but they're my best friends.

5:46 Yeah. I mean we've been through and we it hasn't always been easy, and we've been through all kinds of all kinds of like ups and downs and difficulties, but here we are, thirty five years later. We've always worked it out. We know that. And I would say this young bands out there listening, like, if you find a group, there's plenty of amazing musicians out there that never find a great group to play with. So if you find people that you have an amazing musical rapport with that put your ego aside and like and work it out because it's worth it because you might be like the greatest player in the world, But if you don't have like a great group to play with, you're never gonna like reach the same kinds of heights that you could with people that you can really play with.

6:30 You don't have to be perfect, you just have to be present nice. I love that. Yeah, man, I. Look at some of the icons throughout history. They weren't necessarily the best musician or the best singer, but they had the best group. Well you look at the Rolling Stones. I mean, those guys are like amazing players in a certain kind of way, but what they really have is just the synergy, the way Keith and Charlie Watts play together and a thing that happens when they start playing. I think we have that too. I think we have this incredible musical chemistry and we're really good friends. And that's important too. And as a listener, somebody out in the crowd while you're playing, you can tell whether the band is having that chemistry together and having a good time, and you can tell when they don't. And it's a much better show when you see that. You guys, yeah, are having fun.

7:21 How I have fun? If you're not having when it's right, everybody knows. Man. You can't you can't see it, but you can feel it. What can you possibly accomplish after this? After all these years, Like what goals do you have now? Like I would like to get another bull terrier. Okay, and well you're gonna name them, probably like I don't know, probably a human name this time, Like you know, maybe Kevin. That would be funny. Kevin. Kevin's a great name for vulldok. Kevin the Cookie. And then maybe you could be brought on like Warp Tour. You just go Kevin Lyman and say hey, and named the dog after you so we could Warp Tour. Here you go. You just want to keep I mean, my goal is just to keep growing as a musician. I feel like I'm finally figuring out how to sing. I just like the goal is more just like to keep doing it better, tighter, and just to you know, to stay healthy and to stay in the moment rather than constantly being like I wish I had this, I wish I had that, I want this, I want that to be like just standing there.

8:24 When I was six years old, I used to stand on the back of my couch and look out the bay window of my living room and like we lived on a little cul de sac. I would look out at the cul de sac and I would imagine it full of people and I would sing like home on the Range or something like that, and like, I look at it the people now and I'm doing that. That's what I'm doing. I'm still like that seven year old kid looking out the window singing to the cul de Sac, and I just want to keep that going. That is the coolest answer to that question. I love that. So you guys got to play. Yeah, which means kicking you out of this interview. Is there any final words you want to say before we leave? Come see the Spin doctors.

9:06 If you don't see us today, come see us some other time, because we're presently on fire in our own opinion. Yeah. If you come out and you see a show you don't think it's a really great show, we'll give your money back. And one more thing. Two we got a new record out. It's called Face Full of Cake. It's our best record since our first record. It's on Capitol Records. That's a major label, and folks, that means it's good. There it is. It's definitely good because it's you guys, and I'm so looking forward to your set. And thanks for being on the Adventures pipe Man, thanks for having us. Brother. I need to play the Fucky tune. Hey, this is Chris Barren and Eric Schankman. We're the Spin Doctors and you're listening to the pipe Man on W four cy dot com. She had a boom box, boom box, a baby boom boom my baby, bring a boom box. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Tapement on W for c u I Radio