Celebrity Jobber REWINDS - Tommy Shaw

0:00Hey, it's Jeb Zito and thanks for checking out the Celebrity Jobber podcast. We're streaming on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you listen to podcasts. So please hit that subscribe button. Very important to hit that subscribe button. I appreciate it also. We'd love a five star rating and if you could leave a comment and or a review. You can check out past guests and episodes up on celebrityjobber.com and every Wednesday Celebrity Jobber rewind where we select an earlier episode that you may have missed. You know, in the beginning of this podcast, we didn't really have a whole lot of downloads. And thankfully today I can report that the Celebrity Jobber podcast is number 14 in the United States on the Apple Podcast Music Chart and number four in the United States on the Apple Podcast Music Interviews Chart. So thank you so much for your support.

1:02So once again, you may have missed one of those earlier episodes. This is a pretty popular episode on YouTube, which was originally released back on December 15th of 2023. Number 64 as Celebrity Jobber rewinds with singer guitarist Tommy Shaw from Sticks. Tommy how are you? I'm great how are you this morning. I'm doing great. Are you in Michigan? No, I'm in Nashville. Oh, okay. What's going on in Nashville? That's where we live. We've been here for 10 years. Oh really? Okay. And I hear Nashville's boom and saw a show about it.

2:02Oh, yes it is. It's good and it's bad. You know, everybody's coming to Nashville and so a lot of these little places that were just rolling hills, green grass and railroad tracks are being scraped away and you know it exits coming off. I was 65 and you know, I can't blame people. I did it. It's a fantastic place. It's centrally located and you know, the bus is, one of the buses start out from here. And they come back to here. Right. Well, make sense. For what you do, it makes complete sense because you know, you were out in Michigan. I'm you know, aware for a while and you know, and that's beautiful country out there. I went to school up in Michigan. But for you know, for being in the music biz, probably a little easier getting around

3:05in Nashville. Do you still enjoy some of the same things in Nashville as you did being up in Michigan? Well, the countryside, there's lots of green grass and rolling hills and you get winter time here. So it's not that unlike that much unlike Michigan. I do love it here. It's the first place I came to when I left my hometown in Montgomery, Alabama and it was, I hadn't seen snow in years and it was snowing when I came up through the first time. And so you do get weather here and you get, you really get a good, a good, a good winter time in a good summertime. And I'll tell you one thing you don't get there in Nashville, Tommy is lake effect snow. That's right. My homework or 65. Well, as you mentioned, growing up in Montgomery, Alabama, it's such a great biography that you

4:09have up on your website where it said, you got your first paying gig, playing guitar and singing for your, or singing for your grandfather on your front porch in Montgomery, Alabama, at the age of five years old. Can you tell me a little bit about your grandfather? And it was he, obviously a musical guy, but what did he do? Well, he was retired and so just for something to do, he would go around to the local newspaper stands, machines and take the money out, turn it in. So he always, this is a long time ago. So he always had a pocket full of nickels. Say he'd walk up and he'll be in his thick hands in his pocket and you could hear that money jingling around in there. And I was just this little big headed kid. But I always loved music and I could remember it. And there was this song called, I don't know the name of it, but the chorus went, look.

5:15My heart is an open book and I love nobody but my voice was a little higher. So I got paid for singing in my first song. Technically, I was professional at that point. That's true. That's absolutely true. Can you remember Tommy? Did you ever have a job outside of music? Did you ever get paid for anything other than playing guitar and singing? The Celebrity Jobber Podcast with Jeff Zito. The Celebrity Jobber Podcast with Jeff Zito. Can you remember Tommy? Did you ever have a job outside of music? Did you ever get paid for anything other than playing guitar and singing? I had two jobs. And between the two of them, they lasted about half a day. I was just going to be a surveyor.

6:16You know, where you go out there and you have that little telescope thing. So, first day, I'd go, but I take my guitar with me. So I figured on the lunch break, I was playing my guitar. Well, after lunch time, I went and got my truck and started playing the guitar and I lost trying a bit of time. And the boss came over and knocked on the window and said, any point is like, you're fired. Got fired from that one. And the second one was a friend. It was during and off time. The sticks wasn't on the road. And I just wanted something to do. So a friend in the paper business, he hired me to unload a semi-trailer. And so that was another job that lasted half a day. That was it.

7:17So I mean, it's well documented that from Montgomery, Alabama, you were in a few bands. Can you tell me about the life-changing phone call that you received from sticks? Was that actually that phone call to join the band? Your big break, do you think, quote unquote, big break? Or was there another one that you can think of? Well, the first one was a call. Well, let's say first of all, Mickey from… I'm not drawn. There, the big one was an agent from Chicago. Although Mickey Thomas came to my house one time in Montgomery and knocked on my door. And he said, I came all the way from Cairo, Georgia because I heard about you.

8:21And I was like, you know, and he already had some music on the radio. He was playing with Elvin Bishop. And he said, you should call Bobby Smith in Nashville. They called him Smitty. And so I called him and he said, come on up to Nashville and put the band together. And I want to build it around you. And I'm thinking, I don't know anything. I need to be in a band where I'm going to learn stuff. But I went anyway and I got up there and I just couldn't do it. I just didn't feel right because I wasn't experienced enough to lead a band. But while I was there, I went to Printers Alley and a place called the Electric Circus. There was this huge loud band on stage with the drummer who was right up front. And they had horns and they were sang high and B3 organ and electric guitar. And my buddy who went up there with me, he went up on their break and asked him if they

9:24would let me sit in. And I did. And next thing I know, they were saying, we're getting ready to go on the road and we want you to come with us. Wow. And I said, can I bring my buddy, he's a great person. You know, one of these guys is very gregarious. He'll be very helpful like a tour manager. And so we went around the country for two and a half years doing that. And we were, it was like a killer progressive rock band with horns, almost like a Chicago type of band. It was great. But the problem was disco music came and just started cutting all of our gigs because nightclub owners just needed a PA system and some lights. That's that put it into that band as I came back to my hometown. And one thing that had happened during that tour was playing at a club in Chicago.

10:28It sticks as tour manager to staff and it'd be there one night and he came back and talked to us during our break. And he remembered me when John Sturlowski left the band after they'd already released Equinox and they were at that national tour booked. I left my number listed in my gum week. I just didn't bother unlisting it. And so he got my number from information and called me up and he said, you know, I had a gig there at a bowling alley lounge for 200 bucks a week. But it was almost ten times what I'd made it was the other band. And so I said, you know, I'm making like a couple of hundred bucks a week here at the house. I got a car. He said, let me put you, let me get you a ticket. You might make a little bit more of this work out. And so I went and did the audition. They gave me the high note in lady, which is, I'm just singing that to this day.

11:32But that's what got me the audition. I played a couple of my regional songs. And we wound up using them on the first on the crystal ball. Wow. The Celebrity Jobber podcast with Jeff Cito. Celebrity Jobber. It's been a little while since we spoke, probably pre-COVID. And I know for a lot of musicians, especially touring musicians, you know, a lot of guys selling their music catalogs, not being able to go out on the road, you know, and that's such a big part of your life. Yeah, had that downtime. It seems like forever ago. But you know, it was only four years ago now. Man, I don't even know. But what did you do during that strange time of our lives? I got good at feeding chickens and our dogs and cats and working in the studio and being

12:34around the house a lot more than I think I've ever been. And unfortunately, my wife, my wife, Jeannie and I, we actually like each other. I like her. That's strange. That's strange these days. Yeah. And we, so we, we were used to spending a lot of time together and we just kind of divvied the chores. And, you know, many pairs of sweatpants later have finally started to emerge and put, you know, shoes and socks on. Yeah. Well, I tell you what, it became a real time to, you know, like become a sloth. And I had all these grandiose plans of, you know, doing little projects and improvements and nothing got done. So I'm glad to hear that you, you kind of, you know, were along the same lines here. Yeah, the thing that kept me going and kept me from becoming a nuisance around here was

13:35that we were working on an album that my studio is downstairs. And so I spent a lot of time there working on stuff. Willie vankevich, the sticks producer, lives just up the road. So even though we weren't in the same studio, we worked on the phone and on, you know, FaceTime and that sort of thing. And I got so much done here. And eventually, he made it down here. And that's when we started recording, you know, continuing to record everybody but this time it was remotely. We'd already been working on the album for, you know, for, you know, a better part of a year. But, um, and touring at the same time. And of course, got to mention your time with Damienke's, a super group. Tommy Shaw from Sticks, Jack Blades of Night Ranger, Ted Nugent, some big songs like High

14:35Enough and where you going now. How about any chance of you and Blades and Nuget doing some more Damienke's? Well, we never officially broke up. So there wouldn't be, you know, a reunion. Right. Okay. So, but you're, you know, you're not a Yankee. Well, you know, I could be a Damienke. Well, actually, I lived, I put my Yankee time in. I lived in Manhattan for seven years and I lived in Michigan for 10 years. So I've probably, like, carpet bag around the time. You did your time. That's for sure. Let me say Tommy renegades and jukebox heroes tour. I know foreigner came through Tampa, Florida for the quote unquote last time. It was their farewell tour. But I guess it's hard to say goodbye. So Sticks and foreigner, big tour this summer. You guys aren't, aren't thinking about any farewell anytime soon. Are you? Uh, no.

15:36Good. Well, right. Exactly, right. Exactly. Um, really excited about it. Thanks so much, Tommy Shaw for the time this morning. We're seeing you there. Man, the legendary Tommy Shaw from Sticks. He says his very first paying gig was for a nickel singing for his grandfather on his front porch in Montgomery, Alabama. Well, you know, that's a, that's a fun story. But really not his first paying gig. It was as a land surveyor. He said that gig lasted probably for about a half a day. He also had some downtime in Sticks and helped out a friend of his unloading paper from a semi truck, which he said that didn't work out either. It was really not in the carts for Tommy Shaw to do anything else, but music.

16:37It was at the ripe old age of four or five years old that he got interested in music. Then the gift that would ultimately change his life when he was 10 years old, his parents got him that guitar and it seemed like music was definitely in Tommy Shaw's future from there on in. I thought it was pretty funny how he talked about his one band breaking up that was kind of maybe in the disco era and his tape was out there and some guys from Sticks who were already kind of established and going on a big tour. They heard of him. They needed him because their guitarist was leaving and they flew Tommy up to Chicago. The only thing they made him do was sing the high note of Lady, which you just heard Tommy do over the phone, which I thought was pretty cool. That was it. You got the job. Don't you want me to play guitar? No, that was it. It's all I need. We heard your stuff. You're in.

17:38Talk about a big break. The legendary Tommy Shaw from the band Sticks. You check out all of our past episodes of celebrity jobber up on celebrity jobber.com. You can follow us on Instagram at celebrity jobber podcast. Also our YouTube channel, which is youtube.com, slash the at sign celebrity jobber. And don't forget to subscribe. Appreciate a five star rating and leave a review on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. That's a wrap for this week. Thanks so much for listening. Until next time, I'm Jeff Zito for the celebrity jobber podcast.