Bonus: Interview with Dick Jr. and the Volunteers' front man, Richard Speight, Jr.

Over drinks, Berly and LA chat with Dick Jr. and the Volunteers' front man, Richard Speight, Jr., about his background in music, how Supernatural cons revived this passion, and the band's upcoming show on December 5th at Exit/In Nashville. Now, let's get tipsy!  CW/TW for violent and lewd commentary; listeners beware! 🔞

Summary: Richard Speight Jr., an American actor and musician, discussed his extensive musical background, including his early bands, Perfect Gentlemen and Distortion Hawgs, and his college band, Strange Neighbors. He highlighted his transition to country music with Dick Junior and the Volunteers, influenced by lockdown and his Southern identity. The band's first album, "The Dance and How to Do It," featured covers, while their second, "Fist Fights and Hug Outs," includes original songs. Upcoming live performances include a show on December 5 at Exit/In in Nashville, featuring a unique lineup and a special Hatch Show Print concert poster. Berly and LA express their excitement for the upcoming show and the opportunity to see Richard perform live. They discuss the unique aspects of the show, including the involvement of local Nashville musicians and the intimate venue.

Get tickets to see Dick Jr. and the Volunteers in Nashville!
https://www.ticketweb.com/event/dick-jr-the-volunteers-exitin-tickets/13855183

Resources:

• https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Speight_Jr.
• https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113037/soundtrack/
• https://www.hatchshowprint.com/about

Transcript

Berly: 0:01

Ella, welcome to denim wrapped nightmares, Tipsy exchange Podcast where we explore the supernatural series, episode by episode,

LA: 0:10

over drinks, we'll discuss the lore the gore and what we adore about the Winchesters and their adventures.

Berly: 0:17

I'm Burleigh, and I'm a new fan of the series.

LA: 0:20

I'm LA, and I'm here along for the ride. Now let's get Tipsy.

Berly: 0:26

Hello, la.

LA: 0:27

Hey, Burley,

Berly: 0:28

for our listeners who are caught up on our episodes, you know we're in season seven, and so we clearly have dick on the brain. Just couldn't help but think of our favorite dick. True.

LA: 0:39

I've missed him. We haven't seen him in a while. What is it? Two seasons

Berly: 0:44

Well, I mean, apart from conventions, right? We haven't seen him since hammer of the gods in season five.

LA: 0:50

It's been too long.

Berly: 0:51

I know it has been so today we have a little treat. We've decided to bless our listeners with some dick. Nice. Why don't you tell our listeners about our favorite dick? Well,

LA: 1:03

Mr. Richard Speight Jr is an American actor and director who is known for a variety of roles including CBS TV series Jericho the agency and the HBO mini series Band of Brothers. Speight played a reoccurring role Archangel Gabriel, originally thought to be a trickster or Loki in the WB CW series supernatural. More recently, he played Dugan in the 2021 film, old Henry. Well,

Berly: 1:29

that's a wonderful background in TV and film. But today we're talking about his music background, which a lot of people are not fully aware of, because LA is in Colorado. Here's my interview with Richard Speight Jr. Unless someone has been to a few conventions or decided to read your extensive Wikipedia page, they may not realize that you have a background in music. How did you get started? My

RSJr: 1:59

background in music is long and storied, but kind of that sort of classic American guy wants to be in a band. So American guy learned how to play guitar and starts a band. I mean, I started playing the bands. As soon as I picked up a guitar, I actually picked up a bass, because my buddy Ben, when he was 13, and started playing guitar, and was really good. So I decided I should learn bass, and we started a band The next year. So we were really committed to playing. You know, I hear stories of people who start bands, and it's like, you know, getting their songs out and writing songs and telling their stories, working on the art songwriting. That was not us. We just wanted to be invited to the parties. So we figured, if we're in the band, they have to invite us. First band called perfect gentlemen, the next band was called the distortion hawgs, and I was in the distortion hawgs for many, many years through high school, and then was in a band for a hot minute called inspector 12. And these were all guys who were in my high school or around my high school, and we had just a ton of fun. We'd play the high school parties and play the girls school dance and play the eighth grade dance somewhere else downtown and and it was just so fun to me, I looked at music like like people look at playing pickup basketball with their buddies. It was never a career choice. I never planned on packing everything in a band and going down to town on a tour. I didn't even really think about writing songs or wanting to be with people who wrote songs. I just loved playing, and I just loved the energy of playing and inspiring people to have fun in some of those bands. I was bass player, and that was it. Distortion hawgs. After Tim Wallace graduated, I promoted the lead singer, so I sang for a band or two, sang backup for band or two, played bass in a band, played guitar in another band, and just kind of dug it. And went to college and immediately met a guy named Chuck fakes who was a smoking guitar player, and he was in the same kind of music I was into, which sort of that blues based rock. So we were a good fit. Sam Klein, dear friend of mine, we met in college, and he was actually a songwriter that was new. Never met one of those. So that was cool, because he was writing all these tunes, some of which still make the circuit. So Chuck fakes and and Steve cavid and Sam Klein and I started a band called strange neighbors at USC, and that was our band for the entire Rona College. Now we're playing college bars, and it's different because people are drinking. It's a whole different vibe. We were playing a mixed bag of, like, covers, but then originals and playing, and then making demo tapes and things that we hadn't been doing. I mean, we made a demo tape in high school. It was cover songs like Mrs. Robinson and Day Tripper and that kind of thing with strange neighbors. Sam Klein was a good songwriter and Chuck Vegas was a good songwriter. So they would write these tunes. I ended up writing a song myself. Kind of, kind of inspired me to try to, you know, dabble being around other creative people inspires creativity, I think. And so it was cool, because Sam had a gorgeous voice, and it's when I first saw songwriting as a skill that up close and personal, because he wasn't a great guitar player, but with three chords, he could write a great song like he didn't need a lot of bricks to build a house, because he had a sensibility of phraseology and lyrics and storytelling and knew how. To make the chords align, to be different and interesting each time. And a couple of songs still make the rounds me when I'm drunk, which is an old Sam Klein composition. And then when I go to France, I play a song that Chuck Vegas wrote in French for a French project called consue, which means when I am it's a goofy little blues tune that we recorded for his French project that when I first went to France for a convention, I didn't know how to entertain the people of France, so I thought, well, I'll just dust this off, and it's become a staple of my appearances in France, where the audience knows the lyrics.

Berly: 5:36

Now I love that. Didn't you get signed different band

RSJr: 5:39

after strange neighbors, I stayed in LA and joined another band, or started it with Sam and lovely Larry. And we started this, the band fugitive Pope, and that got signed. We got signed to a small label, still. I mean, you know, one of these bands have popped. Would I be thrilled? And would that have been cool? It would have been awesome. But I wasn't playing. I see what professional musicians do, and I wasn't doing that, I wasn't playing in multiple bands. We weren't getting in the band and driving to bars all over California and trying to drum up an audience. We were just doing it for the love of the game. I think Sam and Larry were more serious than I was, but, uh, but nonetheless. So yeah, that's I basically played in bands my entire life. Fugitive Pope was all originals. We got one song put in an indie movie that was cool many years ago.

Berly: 6:26

Which song in which movie? It was called?

RSJr: 6:28

I don't remember the name of the movie. I know the movie had Hillary Swank in it that I remember. And the song was called skeleton off the one fugitive Pope album called dumb and uncomfortable, very angsty 90s. Title for an album. Once Sam moved to Norway because he married a Norwegian lady his high school sweetheart, at that point, I wasn't hunting around for other bands, because there are a lot of bass players who are better than I was, and I didn't feel like doing heroin, and I didn't feel like being in the rock club scene of LA was not my jam, and I don't know this is like, I didn't find my people, so I didn't pursue it. So I didn't play in bands for a while, but ended up meeting these old sound guys on a show that I was on, and started a cover band with them. Was playing in Venice Beach and doing that kind of thing again, just for fun. And then kind of stopped that when we started having kids, because it was just to be out till two in the morning on Saturday night. Yeah, as we were talking about before we started, you know, morning start early when you're a parent. So didn't matter that I was up during the morning. I was gonna be up at the crack with a baby, so, like, I gotta give that up so that all went away and did not resurface until flash forward to supernatural conventions. Okay? Conventions existed for a while, then I got loud and Swain hired on to be the house band I was hosting. Wasn't trying to step on their turf. Their thing was their thing. I don't think I've even mentioned that I played, you know, to those dudes, it wasn't even a conversation of like, you're the band. I wasn't a band. I mean, we had a shared love of music. We all loved our em. We all loved some of the same things growing up, but they were a complete and polished act. And I, you know, I just was letting them do their thing because they were such a value add to the convention circuit.

Berly: 8:04

When I interviewed Billy, he actually told us about how you were integral to getting the band involved in the convention circuit. Yeah. So good. Good call on that, sir. Yeah,

RSJr: 8:16

man, one of the smarter moves I made. And it took a little convincing, uh, people up top, they didn't get it. They didn't know what, what it would feel like or be like, and what we could pull off. But I did, and so I stuck with it. I mean, I did a lot of work not to go down this rabbit hole, but a lot of work in reformatting what conventions look like with Matt Cohen, and then when I was able to add the band, that was sort of the final piece of the puzzle to really reconfigure what conventions look like to the point now when people show up, they just assume this was, this has always been the model, and it so desperately was not the model. Now they do the same thing for Vampire Diaries. Now they do the same thing for other conventions, where they have a band myself and then with Matt and with Rob and Billy and Steven and Mike, the vibe is very similar to what we created. I'm proud of that, because I think it's more fun for people who are spending their money. So

Berly: 9:06

when did you start playing again?

RSJr: 9:08

They were, they would be playing Saturday Night Special. And then, I don't exactly remember how it happened. At one point, Jason Mann's had me play. He's like, You should play something. And I was a nervous wreck, but I sat down on stage and played like, I think, painted black, which I remember because it was around the time where people were filming things, and it would live forever on the internet. But previous to that, you would do something in a room and walk out of the room and never speak of it again or revisit it. I

Berly: 9:34

remember the days, yeah, I

RSJr: 9:36

remember I was, you know, I was a big old grown up before Internet became a thing. And so I remember that clip being circulated and going, oh, man, I'm glad I didn't muff the plan too hard on that, you know, at some point something happened, and they needed a bass player, because Mike was going to play piano. And I'm like, Yeah, sure, I can step in and do that. We did it again. We did it again. And then we did whipping posts, which is a bass heavy song and that I do in high school. So, you know, I already knew that there was a couple things where it became, oh, I'm a good fit as an extra guy for loud and swaying. It freed mike up to use his talents elsewhere, and I could, I could fill in the gaps. And that was really fun, because that kind of rekindled my fondness for being on stage as a part of a musical act. When I made the first Junior album, thank loud and Twain for that. Because had they not sort of been a part of the world and then been welcoming to new people, you know, they could have been territorial, what some bands are, and they're not. And so it was really cool, because they let me get up there and play bass. Reminded me, oh yeah, I actually enjoyed this. It didn't immediately translate into, I think I'll do my own thing. That was years of me doing things for them, and Jason Mann's going, you know, while he was recording with Gil and Brianna and all these people, he's like, Dude, there's a lane for what you do, and there's nobody in that lane. There's nobody, at least in our circle, there's no country guy. There's no and by the way, all the bands I'm talking about, I never played country music in my life. I listened to it a little bit when I was a grown up. I didn't listen to it when I was young. I listened to it because my dad did, but I didn't choose to listen to it, right? But I am from Nashville, and I am proud of being a southerner and a Nashville and I think I've leaned into my southern identity more the older I've gotten, because, I mean, it's functionally my DNA. I mean my location, DNA. It's my family's multi generational southern. When I moved to California and people, I would hear people making fun of the south, or whatever it would be, one of those things where I'm like, quick note here, I'm southern. So you know, before you start talking about whatever you don't like, about that, that 11 state region. I'm representing it. So go suck. You know, go, believe yourself.

Berly: 11:46

I just, you know, this is an explicit podcast. You can say whatever you want. Well, I just, I

RSJr: 11:51

recognize the shortcomings of my own part of the world, historically, but I also moved to Los Angeles, and have been there a long time, and recognize the shortcomings of that part of the world. There are shortcomings everywhere. There is every, every, no community is perfect and No, no people is perfect. Recognizing your flaws and working to fix them is key not to go down that rabbit hole. But part of my southern identity became when I had kids with playing some of those old tunes for them that reaffirmed my fondness for the classics, George Jones, Willie Nelson, Waylon, Jennings, that kind of stuff. The Kingston Trio, not Southern, and not from the south, but still, my dad listened to them like like crazy. So then, when Jason was saying that, it took him a long time. He said it many, many, many times, Jason Manns, when Jason Manns finally said it enough, I started to listen. And eventually thought, You know what? This, this could work. You know my my fear was always I didn't want to do it. I didn't want to make a joke. I wasn't going to make a joke album, but I wanted it to be fun. That's a tight rope to walk. I knew how I was perceived at conventions. I recognized how my stage persona was perceived by people who came to conventions. They see what I want them to see. They see that version of myself and Rob goofing on stage, and that was the image I cultivated done Kings of Con series. We cultivated this brand. And I'm like, man, me doing a side project can be really tough to maintain that look and feel unless it's done correctly. I give Jason a lot of credit. He understood that, and he worked with me, and was a really great partner on that first album, to dance and how to do it, to help me land the plane on the narrow runway, to do music that was good, legit good with a great band. He found Zach Ross. He already knew everybody else. We brought in Zach Ross through Zach Ross, we found Molly Rogers through Zach Ross, we found Ben Keeler. We added all these guys into the mix to give it a legit sound, but a unique, legit sound, and one that is fun and serious and it's fun, if that makes sense, going straight to great song. Emma Fitzpatrick had the bones of that song written when I met her, then we finished it off together with Zach. And that song is a legit, really good song. It's also fun. Cover raspberry beret, musically phenomenal song, also a lot of fun. So I think Jason really helped shape the look and feel of what I was trying to do. And at that point, when he helped me with that, then it was easy to step on stage and be the rich spade I wanted to be fronting a band. It's also I didn't call the band Richard Speight Jr, you know, I didn't call the band like, if I do this, it's not going to be me in a silhou the candle. You know, Richard Speight Jr sings the country heads of the 90s, was not on my bucket list. So I said, if I'm doing this, I'm doing what I loved, and what I loved was being advanced. It wasn't about being a front guy. It wasn't about being the star. I was the bass player for crash shakes most of my life. I was in the shadows with the rhythm section, and I enjoyed that, that position. So if I was going to step out front, and I. Do things in my lane the way I want them done, then I'm going to do it with a group of people that I feel are along for the ride. Now, granted that that group shifts sometimes, you know, the band we recorded with, we've played a show or two in LA with them, but when we go to Nashville, it's somebody else, you know, we fill in the gaps. Billy Moran and Emma Fitzpatrick are the constants those two are I have to have there. Honestly, would love to have Zach Ross more, because he helped cultivate and create the sound of that band. Dramatically. He's instrumental in making the dick Junior vibe what it is because he's such a unique and dynamic guitar player, very different than Billy. They work super well together. Their sounds mesh well, but he has his own thing that he does. And then album One, he was really the guy laying down the foundation of all those tunes musically. So I wish he were around more to play, but he's a very popular fellow, along with Rob Humphreys and Cooper appel, they are busy people doing their thing. Nonetheless, we found some great people played a festival in Oregon with an amazing rhythm section and another guitar player who's a buddy of mine in Oregon, Matt Harshman, and then in Nashville, we have these dudes who play with us. They played with us last time, and they're just sick musicians, so they can replicate what we did in the album seamlessly. Look at the chord charts we practice, and they're just a blowout band, and so they sound phenomenal, and we sound phenomenal. Another plus is because they are not the guys that recorded it, they bring a little bit of different flavor to it. It's the same badass mud stump and music, but it's just got a little bit of flavor because different guys bring in different stuff. It's like watching a play with a different lead, same script, same staging, you know, same story, but you're going to have a little bit of different interpretation that makes it interesting to watch and listen to. That's a long answer to your question about music and me, but there you go.

Berly: 16:51

The extensive background is provided there. So one thing you didn't answer, though, that I have a question about, yeah, so you said you play guitar and bass, yeah, but I was at a convention recently where you got behind the drum kit, yeah,

RSJr: 17:04

but not well. I mean, like, you know

Berly: 17:07

to me, well, thank

RSJr: 17:09

you. I appreciate that. You know what I can do on drums. I, like, Billy can sit down behind a drum set and actually play, you know, he can actually hit a little bit. And if you were in a pinch, Billy could be a drummer for you. I couldn't, but I can do boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, you know, I can, I can do that, you know, but, but, thank you. I'm glad it well. I'm glad it was more impressive than depressive. That's good. I

Berly: 17:31

mean, it was impressive to me because I had a friend try to teach me how to play drums once, and they gave up on me. After like 30 minutes, I could not get my hands to move at two different tempos. It was impossible. Yeah,

RSJr: 17:41

it's definitely its own thing. It's definitely its own thing, for sure. You know,

Berly: 17:44

are there any other instruments that you can play? No.

RSJr: 17:47

I mean, I when I was really young, I messed around with the saxophone. Well, my grandfather had been sort of a hobby pro saxophone player. He had a dance band called The Walter Speight combo when I was but I didn't even know that. Tell us grown up, and at one point I saw a photo of him with the bandstand and the sack. But I no idea where that photo went after he passed away, not I have no idea. I wish I had it.

Berly: 18:11

That's still amazing, though. Yeah, it was really

RSJr: 18:13

cool. It was really cool because, because my dad was in a my dad had a he doesn't play an instrument, but he had a vocal group, if you will, the duo singing group when he was in college, called the not brothers because we're not brothers. And it was, that was the, I don't think they said that part. That was just why they called themselves the not brothers because they're not brothers. It was him and this guy, Jackie Brown, my dad and Jackie Brown. And that I've heard because they recorded a demo that, again, when I was in my 20s, my dad found the old tapes. We haven't transferred to cassette, and they're kind of a very Kingston Trio meets, you know, Everly Brothers, kind of vibe, you know, two guys singing and one guy playing guitar. Anyway. That was kind of fun to discover. The music thing has sort of been my and, and then it was actually been fun because, JC, my wife is a beautiful piano player, completely different style, like she's classical put on the sheet music and play beautifully and fill the house with, you know, gorgeous Clair de Lune and classical music. It's awesome. You know, you put sheet music in front of me and it's like, I don't know what that is. I'm just making stuff up, and I was played by ear, and then she you take her music away, and she's like, I don't know what to do. So we have these different skill sets that are kind of fun to mess with.

Berly: 19:29

That's funny. I want to bring it back to Dick Junior and the volunteers. Great. You guys have a show coming up on Thursday, December 5, at exit in in Nashville. We do When was your first live performance with Dick Junior and the volunteers, and what have you learned since then?

RSJr: 19:47

First live performance? So we recorded the album, the dance and how to do it, and then played live first time in November. It was right before COVID. It was right like we recorded this album, released. It, and then the world shut down. You know, two months later, great timing, but we played the Roxy. And I had played in so many fans before, but never something that had my name on the marquee. You know, Dick Junior and the volunteers was still, you know, not Richard Speight Junior, but nonetheless, I'm the pointy end of the bayonet of that ensemble and the front guy. It was an amazing night. So much fun. And I learned something that I didn't really stick to, but have relearned it, and I'll stick to it, and that is, I do not like running the band without also playing guitar. Oh, I feel really weird standing there and just singing. That's a very unnatural thing for me, even if I'm just doing a basic rhythm. I'm not looking to show boat on the ax. That's not my skill set, but I It feels strange to not. You know, some people say when I go to this party, I'm just going to get a beer, even though I don't drink so I have something in my hand. Yeah, as I walk around, I need something in my hand. As I am on stage, I just feel more natural with a bass or a guitar or something. And so I remember not knowing what to do, what what to do with myself during the solos or things, because I I've never been that performer. I've always been performer. Had something in my hand, so it was a little strange. So I learned that, and I didn't necessarily apply it so well to every, you know, subsequent gig, but at the Oregon festival, we played the okay fest. I made guitar so much more fun. I'm going to have it in a in Nashville. It just frees me up to lean in a little more, which I love. You're making

Berly: 21:34

me think of Ricky. Bobby were Will Ferrell's like, I don't know what to do with my hands in that interview. I don't know if you know that. Yeah,

RSJr: 21:44

it's true. You know, they say with actors like that's one of the hardest things for young actors. They don't know their hands as an actor, I got it now. As a musician with no guitar, singing or singing, I don't got it now.

Berly: 21:54

Yeah? So speaking of things that you've learned since the first time, the dance and how to do it, like you mentioned is predominantly covers, right? And then you have the going straight the newer album, however, fist fights and hug outs is the opposite of that, only a select few covers and mostly original songs, right? What inspired you to start writing your own music?

RSJr: 22:17

Lockdown, COVID. Lockdown. Okay, you spend a lot of time by myself in hotels when I was shooting old Henry, when I was shooting Kung Fu, old Henry was shot in Tennessee. Kung fu was shot in Vancouver, Canada, I was just stuck in hotels a lot, and I started messing around the guitar, and because of the fun I had discovered or rediscovered in music with Dick Junior the volunteers the first album and the first playing live experience, I then it sort of released the hounds a little bit in terms of, like my passion for it, like it had rekindled what I had loved about it when I was young, and added on to it, this sort of country music, which I hadn't been playing my whole Life, and my fondness for it. So when I would just have the guitar with me, messing around in these hotel rooms, and things would start coming to me, and they made sense to me, either guitar lines or lyrics or some combination of the two. And so I had enough time without work and life intersecting that I could spend the time to just write. It's like, it was like, it's like, I went off on a writing, you know, exploratory shut away of you know, experience to lock myself away and come back with something creative, only, I didn't do it to myself. The world did it to me. So there I was with the guitar, having my hands, keeping cabin fever at bay by messing around the guitar and stumbled into some songs that I was really liking and liked enough to sort of demo record on my own computer with Garage Band and show to Billy and Jason. I wanted to do a second album, and I didn't want it to be another covers album. That it didn't make sense to do that again. I didn't know where the original music would come from. And then the music, the original music arrived. It was awesome. It was a great experience, because I didn't set out to go. I needed eight songs for a record. I just ended up writing a bunch of songs and liking what I was writing, and felt connected to, to it, and comfortable enough share it. Writing music, writing a screenplay, writing a play, writing a book, is one exercise. Handing that over to somebody else is a whole separate exercise, right of vulnerability and everything else. So the fact that I got compliment to do that was a statement in itself. And then Billy responded well to it. Jason responded well, and of course, their friends are going to be supportive, but they also responded in a way that made sense, where, like, look, we think some of these needs adjustments, your roadmap is rock solid. Let's lean in on this, aside from me writing going straight Well, Billy and I'd written one song previous we wrote I liked you more when I knew you less for the first album. So Billy had worked one time where he was like, Oh, you lyrically, you hit it, man, like you. Your humor is still there. Your storytelling is still there. He knew that much about me and. Jason did too. But this was, you know, some of these songs are serious, when these songs are angrier or whatever, and so I was kind of leaving the we're going to chuckle at this lane. And it still worked, and it still was true to what Dick Junior and volunteers should be, and what I want it to be, and how I sing and how I present. But it was different. Consequently, I love the album, because I'm really proud of the music, and I also really leaned in on having Emma Fitzpatrick as a secret weapon more because I just I think she's one of those talented people I've ever met. So I wrote specifically for her voice, your whiskey on my lips, and was talking to her while I was writing it. I'm like, I'm gonna write a song for us. And I'm sure everybody in Nashville said that to her, and she's like, Uh huh, but, but it did. She sang it, and it's and it's one of my favorite songs on the record.

Berly: 25:46

Bragging rights, you spoke earlier about your convention persona, and I believe you have over a decade of experience serving as host and emcee at conventions. How does that influence your performance and engaging an audience at a dick Junior Show

RSJr: 26:03

I have been hosting a long time, and that's a pretty, I don't know natural space really kind of rabbit the briar patch. I make sense doing that. I did that my high school. I was the president of my high school. Get up and make announcements and make the student body laugh, the microphone, it's just a space I'm comfortable in, getting up and goofing around without a script. But you get better with practice like anything else. Even if you're good at something, you get better the more you do it. The old Malcolm Gladwell 10,000 hours theory, and we I've been hosting so long and doing this so long with with Rob and without Rob, with Rob, and it's just honing that energy is is good. I always feel like one of the things that keeps conventions interesting for me as a participant in them is that I get to be up on stage, talking on the microphone and engaging with people and with band us, using the same part of my mind that performing does on stage or on a set, so I'm I'm triggering the same mechanism. So when I'm not shooting something or directing something, I don't feel like I'm getting as stale as I would be if I weren't doing something creative, writing a script, songwriting, playing music, without the interaction on the audit with the audience, just playing music. That's not the same thing as using your your brain and your spoken word to sort of engage a character, a crew or an audience. I enjoy exercising that muscle. It's why I enjoy hosting. It's why we host the way we host, without any kind of plan, and kind of go without a net and do it the way we do it. Some people may prefer more polished, but I think we get away with doing no prep, and that's what keeps it lively. And I think that crosses over into a live performance, if you're the fronting the band, because that's what I'm doing between songs. That's what I'm doing as a part of the show itself. You know, I talked about my on stage persona. It's not a completely fake persona. It's not like I'm actually, you know, British and angry. It's still a strip of rich fate that I'm using on that stage, and that part of me is alive and well as as a front end of the band. Because my music, again, I'm not morphing into something. I'm dramatically different. My music is fun, upbeat, Southern, you know, it incorporates a lot of elements. I think someone could describe my personality as having, but it's music. And then there's some serious things, which is also part of my personality. And there's some, you know, some darker stuff, or not, not super dark, but you know, it, it drifts out of the light. Sometimes the pattern or the conversation that I'm having between songs is performative in itself, much like what I do on stage to sort of keep that energy going. I like energy. I don't like dead space. I don't want to say I don't like silence, because silence is a powerful tool. But I don't like it as a constant. I don't like it as a as a through line. The same guy that's on stage warming you up for, you know, to see CW stars, it's the same guy who's gonna be on stage giving you, going between songs of the band, and then the band elevates it even higher, because they're a wall of powerful musical energy. It's very much an extension of my convention stage self. What I do on and the on the shows? And that's an interesting question, by the way, because I know that sometimes you can go see Woody Allen play clarinet in a jazz club. You're not going to get funny. Woody Allen,

Berly: 29:29

I was about to bring that up. It was something that stuck with me after seeing you guys for the first time at exit in last year, was your ability to keep it consistently entertaining throughout a lot of bands between songs will just say this is the next song we're going to play, and play it, or something like that.

RSJr: 29:48

I know and, and, and sometimes that's their thing. They're doing it honestly, and that's you can't fault them for it. It's just not who I am. I For better or for worse, I have the. Gee, I have, you know, and I mean that, like, you know, I have a lot of teachers who would say it was for the worse. And I have, I'm sure my sons, at some point think it's for the worst. Gonna drive them nuts in my own dad way. But I think in my life in general, in a world that can be challenging in itself, I, you know, I tend to bend positive and to try to, like, live in that space of kind of enjoying whatever's happening in real time. It's a fine line, because I always say, like, my on stage persona, and it's not an act, it's not a persona, right? But you know, you're letting people see what you want to see. You're just doling out what you want people to know, what people to see. But it's still real, it's still honest, and it's still who I am, which is why it carries over from one stage to the other, because it's not an it's not a convention persona. I'm not a game show host here, and then I'm real me in the bar, like it's still real me. In fact, that's I did that on purpose, where I wasn't creating a complete BS hosty, hey, thanks for coming guy for conventions. Rather than me go to convention and adapt to convention, was I just dragged convention towards me so that I could create, take the energy that I wanted it to have and tap it into what I already felt comfortable doing. So that's why it translates into the music stage.

Berly: 31:13

Back to the show on December 5, yes, what is the lineup? And what can we expect from each set?

RSJr: 31:19

It's a great lineup. I love the station breaks. The station breaks are, for those who don't know, it's an offshoot band. You know, everybody who is involved in the convention world for supernatural has sort of loud and Swain, and that's the staple band, house band travels with us at the US conventions. The station breaks is an offshoot of that, where it's Billy, Moran, Robin, Nick and Jason Manns, and they have an album, and they have great music, and they're writing a new album. I think your stuff is great. When it first came out, I was a huge fan. I think Rob and Jason's voices together are phenomenally good. I, you know, told them as a compliment. Also, I think annoying them mildly, I'm like, I don't think I like your two voices together, sometimes more than the individual components, which is a, it's a little it's a Simon and Garfunkel compliment. But every young man Garfunkel could get annoyed, but I but they think they're great musicians individually, too. So it's not, it's not saying you're better at this. I'm just saying it's such a powerful tool to have in your back pocket to be able to team up and and do what you do. And then, of course, Billy such a rock solid player and singer in his own right that he has a third voice and songwriting is super strong. It's just a great band. So station breaks is playing, and in that band, you have three gentlemen who have solo work of their own. That's really, really good, Rob Benedict, Jason mans, Billy Moran, and and so within the framework of that set, they're also playing solo music, not solo music, like everybody leaves, they drag out a stool and play acoustic guitar. Because when I was building this show and I was set, you know, we got the guys together, I said, we ain't doing an acoustic opening. I don't want to be the one band. And everybody else is out there playing in a soft spotlight, some morose music about what went wrong in their youth. I don't give a shit. That's not what this is. It's a different night. I want this to be fun, and I want it to be a band across the board. Play whatever music you want. You know, you got sad song in there, great, but play it with the band. Like, just make it all make it all consistent. You know what? I mean, yeah, and so, and everybody read, we're like, Yeah, let's do that, man. It's close to the holidays. It'll be upbeat, it'll be fun. We're ready to sort of kick off the last month of the year and just kind of kick off the convention. You know? The other thing is, we've done concerts before, myself, other bands involved with convention circuit, and they're on the Monday after a convention. So you go to a supernatural convention, and then on Monday you go to the concert you just beaten up by Monday, like you just as a as the as the guy who's been hosting all three days, or as the attendees who've been bouncing around from event to event you just shot. And we're like, well, let's, let's turn that model on its ear and play on a Thursday night, which is when most people go see bands. So like, Let's just follow a more normal model kick off the weekend, as opposed to put a cap on it. I think that's gonna be really fun. And in the lineup, we have Tyler James playing some keyboard, who produced Rob's first album, Rob solo album. He also produces a lot of Emma Fitzpatrick music. He's a really talented producer and musician. He's gonna be playing some keyboard for station breaks. We have the same Dick Junior lineup who will be the band for station breaks too. Rob Calder on bass, don't have car on drums, Jules Belmont on guitar and pedal steel and everything else with strings on it. And then, of course, from the dick Junior side, he got the core component of Billy Moran and Emma Fitzpatrick, so they're the cornerstone of what I'm doing. And then this band, which we had last year, they're just phenomenal. So we're super stoked that they were all available to come back and do it again. The Nashville volunteers, which that's our tech chain. With them, is the national volunteers, so the national chapter of the volunteers will be out in full force, and it's gonna be dope. It's just exciting to have. To gather that much talent in one place and play, and the exit end is an awesome venue. I have bootlegs in the exit in from when I was a teenager, and they've only improved that venue. It's gotten better and better. They kind of gutted it, which got rid of some historical elements that I missed. But the upside is they improved the sound system, they improved the lights. They kept the stage, you know, they kept the layout and the look of the vibe, but just made some improvement. So it's a great place to see music all week into the conventions and online. I'm promoting the shit out of the show, because that's what I do. I'm playing a show, and I want people to come see it. But I also, in my heart of hearts, I know it's a home run. I know the talent of Rob Benedict and Billy Moran and Jason Manse. I know how good the band is. We have a symbol. I know how much fun it was last time, and we've only gotten better. This is going to be a dope night and a great way to kick off, you know, the weekend. So it's, it's, I feel like it's, it's a no brainer, it sells itself, type of thing. But of course, not everybody knows the whole band's music. And exit in and I'm still selling. I'm still not still out there, pushing, I've been forming the public

Berly: 36:02

I say, them. You're helping them make an educated decision. That's the way I like to the correct way. Well, as somebody who's been to two Dick Junior and the volunteer shows now, I highly recommend the event as well. So I've also been telling people that they need to come. Now I have seen some questions floating around from people. You mentioned the exit in venue, yeah, how convenient is it to get to exit in from the convention Hotel? Some people are concerned about that. Not

RSJr: 36:31

at all, not at all. I know the creation, just so, you know, this is one of those things where, you know, they do the Chicago convention, and we're in Rosemead or, like, we're not in Chicago. You know, there's one of those. For the first time ever, creation has put the national convention not in Nashville, it's in Murfreesboro. Now, I mean, you're 30 minutes outside of town. Nothing about that. They decided to make it a Murfreesboro show. And I, I think they just couldn't get an event space in Nashville, and that's a bummer, because it previously been in downtown Nashville, where it's all happening. And Nashville is a great town, but I will tell that, tell this to your listeners who are going to the convention. I go to a lot of conventions, and I end up on the outskirts of towns a lot, and I've never been sorry that I went into Paris, or that I went into London, or that I went into Chicago, or they went into New York. I've never thought to myself, I should have stayed in whippin. So whatever half hour it takes you to get there, just give me a half hour you glad you're spent because national is a great town. Whether you've been there before or not, you're going to want to get into downtown Nashville. We're giving you an excuse, but you can find other reasons too. It's a great town.

Berly: 37:40

Another concern that I've seen some people talking about is the potential of there being a conflict on the schedule. Is that something that you have any insider information on?

RSJr: 37:50

We aligned this concert with the brass at creation before we launched it, because we wanted to be sure that we were stepping on any toes, unless there's some event on Thursday nights that's new that I don't know about. There's is no official event on Thursday nights. That's why we were comfortable doing this. I would never do anything that conflicted with Kim and Brianna's events, or, you know, one of my buddies events, that we're not there to pull people away from the convention. We are there for the convention, but it's, it's a kickoff for the convention, not a competition with the convention. Exactly the exact opposite. We want this to sort of be the first night of what's going to be a, you know, when you tackle into Thursday, four days of phenomenal group experiences. So, you know, we're kind of classified, even though they'll be of non convention people at the show. Obviously, a large component of our group at the exit in will be convention people. We just think it badass way to kick off with a killer weekend. It's not competing with anything that creation has set up. We specifically made a point to not do that

Berly: 38:47

great. All right, so for those of you thinking that you're not going to be able to get there, you should go anyways. It's essentially right around the corner from Centennial Park, isn't it? Yes, it's

RSJr: 38:57

very near Vanderbilt University. In terms of national, it's very central. It's very easy to get to get to in Nashville. It just happens to not be near the convention hotel. But Nashville, you're not traveling the backwoods. You'll be on a freeway, and it'll be you grab an Uber, and, you know, you get there in this day and age, it ain't hard to get anywhere. You're not taking a tram. Won't be on a, you know, gondola. It's not hard to get there. You get an Uber. I'm gonna take you to exit in and that's where they'll drop you. And by the way, this again, talking about, you know, bang for your buck. The show is going to look and sound phenomenal. You can see some photographs the last time the lighting rig in that joint is awesome, like you're getting a lot of production value in that space. It's also makes it, makes it worth the trip, you know. I mean, at the end of the day, I wish we got to do more Dick Junior shows. I wish it was a thing where we were doing a tour across five cities and assembling a rock star band and being able to do this caliber show multiple times in a row. But unfortunately, that doesn't work out logistically with everybody's lives. I have high expectations of what. I want to put out there. Then everybody also has careers and lives that pull them in 20 different directions. So it's hard to get everything together right to deliver the kind of show that you want to deliver, that you would want to see if you were showing up to a venue. This is one of those times where we can pull it off. I don't say it lightly when I say, come see us. It's going to be awesome, because we don't do this a lot, because we can't, and it's going to be awesome. So it's worth the effort. This is just one of those rare opportunities to be in one of the coolest cities in America, at one of the coolest venues in the coolest cities of America, seeing local dudes do what they do. The entire band is of the national volunteers are all you know, Nashville studio musicians living and working there in the professional music space, and they're just phenomenal. And then we show up with our flavoring to bring our own style to it, and it's just going to make for a great night. One of the coolest things, by the way, is the hatch show print. We commissioned a hatch show print Concert Poster for the event, which is just awesome. I just saw the final proof of it last night. And hatch show prints, for people who don't know is a wood car, wood carving, poster maker that you have seen you do not that's I know you have seen hatch show print, but it's been around the 1800s and has been doing Americana advertisements and concert posters forever. They did the dig JR and the volunteers album cover for the dance and how to do it. I commissioned them to do that, and they run these beautiful parchment presses of their posters. They still make the posters the original way they were made when hat show print open in whatever year. And so we also have this cool piece of Americana art that goes with the show, that is, you know, it's a it's a purchasable item, but it's not expensive. We didn't do it to, like, send our kids to private school. We just wanted to do something that's cool, that represented the show and the vibe and the town. That's going to be a cool piece of of frameable art. It's not some BSP, you know, photo of me and Matt looking like jerks. It's an actual cool thing. And so, you know, we've just done everything we can do to make this thing as cool as humanly possible for us, and in so doing, it's gonna be really cool for other people as well their work. If you have never heard of hatch show print, go online and look up hat show print. You'll be blown away. And you'll also go, Oh my God, I've seen that kind of work all over, because it doesn't matter if you're from the south or not, the work is recognized globally and has, you know, they do wine bottles, they do, they do. They're commissioned to all kinds of things and stuff looks awesome. Oh, I pulled up their side. I wanted to see if I knew when they were, when they started. Let's see. Yeah,

Berly: 42:39

I don't remember from the tour last year. I

RSJr: 42:41

should know, it just 100 and 40th birthday. So there you go. Wow, wow. Yeah, 1879 it was sounded so there you go. So, yeah,

Berly: 42:54

it's a unique opportunity, a rare occurrence. Yeah,

RSJr: 42:58

you know you don't get, you don't get Jason bands playing solo music with a band ever you no one has ever heard rob you know Rob Benedict plays the swing, but he hasn't played his solo stuff. So yeah, you're gonna get station break stuff, you know and love, or will know and love once you hear it. You're also getting Rob Benedict doing solo stuff with a full band, which he's never done. So that's cool and unique and awesome. And then Billy's only played his solo stuff with the band once, and that was in LA at the whiskey, and it was unbelievable. And so now he's getting to do it again. So it's just gonna be really, really cool. It's gonna be a really unique doesn't matter how many conventions you've gone to or how many concerts you've gone to after a convention, this ain't that. This is its own animal, and it's gonna be super unique and interesting and fun and in a great city, kicking off the end of the year, you know, ramping up the holidays. It's just gonna be a great experience. If

Berly: 43:45

you can survive the trek from the airport to the convention hotel, then this, this should be nothing, yeah, well worth the journey, exactly.

RSJr: 43:53

This is why God gave us Uber. And thanks for doing this. Thanks for talking about the show and everything.

Berly: 44:00

No problem. I'm excited for it, me too. And I think a lot of people are going to be upset they missed out if they don't take advantage of this.

RSJr: 44:10

I certainly hope so. If

Berly: 44:20

you're going to the Nashville con, why would you not go get some dick? It's right there. Get tickets at exit in.com and we got permission to share the promo code from Kings of Con. That's Rob and rich, R, O, B, A, N, D, R, I, C, H, type in that code before checkout, and you should get a discount again. That's exit in.com promo code. Rob and rich man.

LA: 44:50

I really wish I was gonna go. I'm gonna miss seeing him and the show itself and just all the other artists. It's bummed I'm not gonna be there.

Berly: 44:59

I'm bummed you. Be there either, but I will be there with bells on.

LA: 45:04

I'm excited for you. We will hopefully

Berly: 45:07

be doing our little line dance that we've been promoting to everybody for when the devil drives, whenever that song comes on. And I am so looking forward to getting to see Nashville again. I've, I've still been dreaming about that barbecue that we had.

LA: 45:21

Oh yeah, oh god,

Berly: 45:24

I will definitely be getting some barbecue while I'm in downtown Nashville. For sure, you

LA: 45:30

got to take some videos at the show too, and that the venue is so small, but it it makes for like a really great, intimate show.

Berly: 45:36

The lighting you don't normally get lighting like that in smaller venues, right? It was beautiful. Just a phenomenal show. I hope I remember to go live.

LA: 45:46

You'll have to tell me all about it when you go back. And I'm curious to see if they like with each set, if they play like one of them comes out and plays with the other,

Berly: 45:56

oh, during their solo performances, if they have a couple of little cameo things, yeah, that would be right, right? I can't, I imagine that they would, yeah, I mean, you would think so it's going to be fun. I know you, I know you have major FOMO, and I'm just excited. Well,

LA: 46:14

I feel like we should, can we just, like, video chat?

Berly: 46:19

Well, like I said, I'll try. I'll try to go live. But you know me, I won't be able to stand there and film the whole thing or do the whole thing live. I'll get true I'll get distracted by my favorite piece of eye candy. It's not frequent that I get to watch Richard Speight Junior with my bare eyeballs, rather than through a screen. Right? Who knows how well, who knows how well the videographer

LA: 46:44

will be anyways, I feel like we'll see a lot of the floor. Maybe

Berly: 46:48

I'll try. I'm gonna try. All right. Well, thank you guys for listening today. We hope you enjoyed this surprise bonus episode, and I hope I'll see you in Nashville. Cheers, cheers. Thank you for listening to denim wrapped nightmares.

LA: 47:07

Follow us on Twitter or Instagram, leave a review and let us know how we can get involved in the fandom. This was fun, jerks. It always is, bitch. You.