PipemanRadio Interviews Squiggy of The Music Experience at Louder Than Life 2025

0:04 Hi, you learnt here? That's shirt w for see Why were You young? This its pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe Man W four c Y Radio. And I'm here with Squiggy Squiggy did Jakomo from the Music Experience. And I've got Sarah right next to me, nice Lie from Louder than Life. So Sarah's wearing an Aussie shirt, yes, sir, And I have these Ozsie glasses. I've worn for years. Originally I called them by John Lennon glasses and then I looked at him like, no, They're more like Ozsie glasses.

0:44 I've been wearing them since he passed away. And last week at Bourbon I was interviewing Neil, Gerardo and Giraldo and I went to take them off in the interview with the headphones on and snapped, oh no, no, bombed. I think you saw that me with them last week at Bourbon. Right. Hey, you know what's so funny, man, In the back of our tent, we have a sunglass graveyard. Yeah, because sunglasses just don't survive. I bet yeh. A bunch of them are mine. I was talking about that with Jose from Serious. It's like he has the ray bands. You know, and I want to get them. But I'm like, I am so bad with sunglasses, Like I'm buying a new pair every week or two.

1:27 Now. I mean, festivals and sunglasses, Man, they do not go together. They do not in our world anyway. I'll even leave them somewhere or in the pit, I lose them or whatever, it doesn't matter. Yeah, yeah, yep. So tell me about you have an ouzy thing in your tent? Yeah, man, tell me about that. So you know the thing over at Music Experience that when we really started. One of the things that we got fascinated with early on in the story that we wanted to tell was I always used Jimmy Hendrix as kind of our our kind of our northern light. Right. So everybody loves Jimmy Hendrix, right obviously, but it's our job to tell the story that Jimmy Hendricks without jim Marshall and without Leo Fender. When you hear Jimmy Hendricks, what you're hearing is a Marshall, a Fender Stratt plugged into a Marshall. So when people see Hendricks, but what they're hearing is they're hearing a Fender through a Marshall.

2:30 Right, I love that. So in the Jimmy Hendricks story, Leo Fender and Jim Marshall are characters within the Jimmy Hendrick story. So we kind of took that approach with Ozzy. And so we have all of the signature guitars that his guitar players have used, right, So we have Iomi's sg we have Jakie Lee's Sharvel, we have Gush G's Star guitar, we have Brad Gillis's Stratt, and we have Zach's Bullseye, and we have Iomi's Laney guitar. Rig over there you seed one more, you know that, right, So we only had a room for a couple, but yeah, we figured man, those were the most known, right and they had signature guitars.

3:17 So that that's our world, you know. We want to show that all of these guys were kind of characters within the Azzy story and riffs and guitar playing were so important to the Azsy sound. We're kind of celebrating the sound of Ozzy more than. Ozzy in our world. I love that. And little tidbit about me, you might not know I saw Ozzy, Well, I've seen Auzzie every year since like nineteen eighty. I even had Blizzard of Odds on eight track. Oh wow, Okay, so mister Crowley between track two and track three it split up because if you remember the eight tracks, like it would split a song. I remember. Yeah, of course, mister Crowley would fade out and you'd hear the track click to the extract and then it would fade back in the rest of the song. Oh nice, I'm thinking about that, like that's freaking stupid.

4:07 Yeah, yeah, kind of in our world. And once again, it doesn't take anything away from the rock stars, not taking anything away from Ozzie, not taking anything away from Hendricks. But in our world, you know, we celebrate the sound. It does make a different Leo Fender, Jim Marshall, Bob Taylor, Paul E. Smith, Orville Gibson, John d Angelico. These are the guys that are kind of like our rock stars, and we amplify their stories and then the artists within their stories. So we just celebrate the sound because the sound is what we hear. I think it makes a difference, Like I think there's a reason why certain ours play certain brands because it makes their signature sound not just them, but the sound of the instrument.

4:53 Well, so, so to your point, one of the things that we talk with a lot of students and young people that come through, and we wanted to show this year that we have big posters of all of our founders, Bob Taylor, Les Paul, Paul Reach Smith, John Dy, Angelicoe. We have big posters to celebrate our founders. But with each one of those founders is a belief system. There's a reason why Leo Fender did bolt on next right, There's a reason why PRS does the guitars the way that they do. There's a reason behind every one of the ideologies behind the guitar. And there's nothing better to when do you play a guitar that has your belief system that you want to be characters in the story.

5:34 And these are guys' names with beliefs. So we celebrate those beliefs and we stop telling the stories of our founders and the stories of the beliefs. At some point we stop telling those stories. And I don't know why, but it's our job to keep doing it. Oh, I think so, because like so, let me ask you a question too, As somebody that played guitar and sucked, we all do, right, I'm thinking while you're saying that, some like, well, maybe I was on the wrong brand. Maybe there's a better brand that would make me better. Does that exists to an extent? Sure, if you're inspired by guy X, right, but you're playing a different guitar, a different amp, a different set of pedals, and right like, you're not gonna sound like that person.

6:23 Right. So it's a little different today because all the secrets are exposed. Everybody makes a great guitar, right, right, everybody makes a great guitar in a thousand bucks. It's a testament that just the technology is caught on. But man, like, there's brands that sound like If you want to sound like Hendrix, you're playing a strat Right. If you want to sound like Hendrick, you're playing a Stratfield Marshall, there's no replacement for that. You want to sound like Ioma, you want to sound like Sabbath, you're playing through a Laney. And if you're trying to sound like certain characters and with the wrong gear, year, you're not gonna sound like them. To your point last week, I also, before I played guitar, I played drums for years. I ended up sucking at that too. And then I sang thresh metal after guitar.

7:06 Sucked at that too, so now I do this. But seriously, though, the highlight of last Weekend and Bourbon Beyond for me was Ringo Starr because number one. That was like a bucket list because I was a huge Beatles fan when I was a kid, so much so that what made me start playing drums were two people, Ringo Starr and Peter Cris. It was also a huge Kiss fanatic. I was bipolar. I had my whole room posters and literally spit split down the middle, Beatles on one side, Kiss on the other. But the first thing I looked at when Ringo was performing was that he still plays the same brand that he has always played, because I remember being a little kid in like Ludwig is that's what Ringo plays? Yeah, man, you know, and you know Peter Chris played Pearl, you know, And I was looking up there, I'm like, oh my god, he still plays Ludwig like he has not changed. So to me, that proves your point because that's Ringos sound on that drums, on.

8:11 That drum kip. Maybe if he played a Pearl he would have sounded, but who knows it doesn't matter because he played he played Ludwig. So like, that's the sound. Last week at Bourbon so you talk about the Beatles so with Ringo that that was a big thing for me too. Write love the Beatles, but like the Beatles, Like you want to sound like Paul McCartney. You play a Hoffner through a box, right, that's the sound of Paul McCartney. I have a trivia question for sure. Finish what you're saying, though, No. But the Beatles had very you know, they they had gear that made them sound like the Beatles. If the Beatles play through marshalls, they wouldn't sound like the Beatles, right, So if you have a Marshal at home and you have a Gibson less Paul at home and you like the Beatles, well you ain't gonna sound like the Beatles.

8:51 See that's great InFocus. I think ninety people don't know that. They don't know because nobody's telling those stories anymore. And we have to tell stories. Stories are what carry our folklore in our industry. And if you watch guitars when they're switching guitars. There's the reason. There's a reason based on the song. And most people don't think of that either. It's like why they have so many guitars. No, it's not because they're collecting guitars like baseball card. Right right reason. Yeah, dude, if these guys could have one guitar that did everything, they would have that guitar, right, But you have guitars for different things, and guitars sound differently totally. So I have two trivia questions. For first one we'll do it is in reference what you're just talking about. Who is the most famous bassist in history that was not a bassist? I mean it was, but he was really a guitarist and pulled the short straw and had to play.

9:47 Bass, Toddy McCartney. That's correct. And so now if you go lit and people listen, if you go listen to the beads Now and you specifically listen for the bass, he plays it like a guitar. The greatest Paul McCartney bass line ever, still a little love songs. There you go, it's the greatest bass line ever. And yeah, but like a bass player doesn't play bass like that. You know, that's somebody playing lead bass. Yeah, yeah, that's a guitar player playing bass. Yeah, because it was John and George also played guitar. They didn't have a bass player. Paul, you're the bass player. Yeah, yeah, no, I mean yeah, so, but you know, there's a lot of guitar player guys that go over to bass and they just rip, you know. I see that a lot, you know. Yeah, it's pretty cool. Okay.

10:30 Second one back, I went and saw Ozzy one year, three times in one year, three different guitarists. Can you tell me who those three different guitarists were, all in the same year. Hmmm, And I'll give you a hint. One of the guitarists only played one show. Well, now I'm interested, so you tell me, because I don't think I know this, Okay. I saw Randy okay, then Randy right, and then Pat Traverers Pat Travers laid an off gig yep, and then it was Brad Gillis yep. Yeah, you know what, You're right. I wouldn't have remembered.

11:12 I knew it was Randy's era, right, So. I knew that Pat was going to be the trick part. Yeah yeah, God man, did you see some of those shows? I saw all three? No way really? Yeah, Like I saw Ozzie wit Randy on New Year's Eve. Funny story about that, Like, so it was one of those gigs where I told my dad I was sleeping at my friends. He said he was told inspiency to sleep at my house and we went to Ozzie Yeah, yeah, okay, and then we get we get home and I lived in LAKELANDUO in Gora, California, where we had a lake in the backyard, but you had to go down this hill. So we're hanging out at the bottom of the hill in my backyard but my parents, my dad couldn't see. Yeah, so we're hanging out till it's warning and I could walk in like okay, I'm home, and my next door neighbor she comes out and she's like, oh, boys, did you just go to Ozzie show last time? I'm like, oh, fucker, b busted, busted. She's like, wait there, I'm gonna get my husband now. I'm really scared. Uh oh really busted.

12:16 Husband brings me up there and my friend turns out he's Azzie's promoter. Next door fucking neighbor I didn't even know, brings me into his studio in the house, which was wall the wall, cassettes the whole and gives us a whole bunch of Ozzie swag, and then he hands me this cassette tape. He goes and this also pertains to I think it's this festival. It's either this one or Aftershock, because they're all swirling, and he goes, listen to this band. They're gonna be big in about six months. They're not here yet, they won't be to us for six months, but they're really big where they're from. And here here's your cassette tape. You can have a preview of what they sound like. It was except really and I remember turning on and hearing Fast as a Shark and I'm.

13:12 Like, oh my god. And then like one of my best friends has Dan Spitz for Manthraxing, and he says to me, he goes, We all sat around like meaning the Big Four, and we're like, that's the first thrash metal song ever Fast as a Shark. That's when they started playing double bass, When like Lobardo started playing double bass and all of them started doing it was because of that song. So let me ask you, what is your What do you think is the most underrated Ozzie record. That's a good question. I'm thinking I almost have to say this last one because it was pretty badass with so many badass people on it. And I'm not sure people talk as much about this Patient number nine as all the rest of them.

14:00 Yeah, I'll tell you, man, I love the Gush G record. Man, the Scream record, Okay, I thought it was great, but I know people that they have their own opinions of it. Man. I thought Ultimate Sin was probably his most underrated, but. My favorite record is correct Man. Diary of a Madman's my favorite. And I actually got to shoot Ozzy, which is a rare occurrence because he doesn't normally he didn't normally allow photographers. It was at that festival Moonfest when we had the total eclipse, the real famous one, Oh yeah yeah, And he was going to do Bark at the Moon during the total eclipse, and it was where it was located, was the epicenter, like the longest part of and so we're sitting there all the press people and I had a photo pass and they're like, yeah, you guys aren't gonna be able to shoot this, and they come out five minutes there. Okay, Ozzie changed his mind, you can all shoot no way. And I was standing like directly under him while a total eclipse was happening.

14:59 Like pictures I. Can put a great moment in time, they. Look like black and white pictures. But it was the eclipse and I was just looking up at him like I was right under him and he was looking down like giving me the shots and stuff. That was if you want to talk about fanboy moment, there was one that was one. There's not many I've had. That's one of them. I'm like, oh my god, I'm shooting out, and even more so now that he passed, because I pulled up that old album. I'm like, I'm looking at all the photos I'm gonna upload, and I'm. Like, holy shit, these are really good photos with Austin. It's so funny when when you've done this as long as we have, like you never really know who you're gonna fanboy for, because we like to think, oh man, you know, we'd never fanboy, but you don't know.

15:44 Man. I've kind of caught myself in like very very things that I would never have, you know, Like I met Frank Hannon from Tesla Nice and I was just like, I remember like when I bought the Renaissance record Man, Modern day cowboys like watching it like I don't know, man, Like I met him and I went right back to being, you know, twelve years old watching TV and it was very strange. And he's such a nice guy. It's just but you know, when we do the festival stuff like we do, you're around so many of the artists that you don't fanboy. Then you meet somebody who kind of gets you back to these really happy moments in your life. And you know what gets me too, is like when they're really cool people.

16:24 Okay. So, and a lot of times back here in media, people talk. I don't listen to anybody like I've heard people say like negative things about artists. I'm like, maybe it's just that you didn't get an interview and now you're like sour bud or whatever. So there's one female that I always joked about on my live show that was basically I used to joke, she's the love of my life, okay, and people said, oh, she's not nice, Oh she's this, she's that. And so at Rockville, I was walking from an interview and my wire was dragged on.

17:05 The ground and this big dude comes up, he like picks it up for me. He's like, be careful, man, and he's helping me out. And then I go over my table and Christine's like she's doing something on the table. She's like, I hope you don't mind. I'm using your table because Amy Lee is gonna come over here and be signing stuff. So I'm like, okay, cool, Can I stick around. She's like yeah, just don't ask for an interview. Yeah, I like I will. And then so then one dude asked I wouldn't have done this, but one dude, the press dude asked for a picture. She did a picture. So I went to this. Turns out that big dude, what's her security guard? I didn't even know it. So I went up to him. I'm like, hey, since you helped me out, can I get a picture with you?

17:47 Yeah? And he goes sure. It was the first time ever in history my phone was not in my pocket. I left it wherever I did the interview. I'm like, oh fuck, and I'm like running over you get my phone back, and Christine's like, yeah, she's got to go now, it's too late. And Amy came up and she's like, no, I wanted you to pick with him. And at that point, I was fanboy. And to your point, it was because everybody said all this stuff and she was so sweet and nice and it was so bad that it's probably the worst picture of me ever because I was so kind of flustered that I like put my head up in the air and yeah, yeah, and so yeah, to your point, you just never know, Like if it was an interview, I wentn't a fanboy, but it was that that she asked, no, I want to do it with him.

18:39 Yeah, And now you have the story attached to it, and right, that's the moment there, it is. That's the moment. So how do people reach out to you guys? And because they can buy your stuff online too, they don't have to just come to a festival. And how did they check everything out? Yeah? So I mean if people want to buy gear, our retail partners American Musical Supply, so you can go to America Musical dot com. We'll just follow us. The music experience on Facebook, I think it's at tme e XP. Is that right, Sarah? Yeah, Instagram is tme e XP and then I think Facebook is just the music experience. So just look for the ugly guy with the long beard and the great ear rings in the green earrings. Yeah.

19:20 And the sunglasses yeah, always love You're like me. It's like I love wearing the funky sunglasses. Have these sunglasses that are like Aussie glasses, but they are one of those that have like skeletons that like keep changing. So I'll do that on the interviews. Oh no please sometimes a video one. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it kind of cool. Love it love. I love when you wear all the glasses. But everybody that comes to any Danny Wimmer festival that you're at, they need to visit your booth. Thank you, the best place in the whole festival. Thank you man, Thank you, thank you, thank you. That means a lot. Thank you, and thank you for doing what you do. Alrighty Matthew you hear it louder than life, all right, thanks very much. Thanks rolling on the Adventures pipe Man.

20:02 Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Pipemin on w for c u I Radio.