Ep 16: A Conversation with Jason Peek

In this episode, John chats with Jason Peek, a lifelong working musician. Starting out at just 12 years old alongside his bandmate, Jason went on to help build Kung Fu Diesel, a Michigan-based band that carved out a loyal following across the Midwest with a gritty, blue-collar sound and a reputation for delivering it live.

Rooted in Michigan where there’s a subtle Motown undercurrent, the band found its lane somewhere between rock, blues, country, and R&B, though Jason has never been one to get caught up in labels. For him, it’s always been about the song. Over the years, that mindset carried him through packed rooms and arenas, opening slots for major acts like Ted Nugent, David Lee Roth, Eddie Money, The Pretenders, and Molly Hatchet.

What emerges in this conversation isn’t just a story about a musician or a band, but about a way of doing music. One that values feel over flash, consistency over hype, and the long road over the fast track.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

You are listening to the Gig2Live podcast. Welcome everyone. I'm John Foltz and I'm a full-time working musician. This podcast is about building a music life that holds up over time. It's practical, enjoyable, sometimes uncomfortable, but it's always about helping you stay in the game and actually enjoy the life that you're building. We'll meet some wonderful working musicians from time to time. So whether you're just getting started or you've been doing this for years, you're in the right spot. This podcast is for you. Well, hello everyone, rock and rollers, country fied people, I don't know, wherever you're at, whatever you do, wherever you're listening. Hello, today, punk rockers. Do we have any punk rockers out there that are doing gigs? I think that would be amazing. I I may want to talk to you if you're doing punk gigs, but uh today we have a special treat we have in the studio with us, my friend Jason Peak. Now I I gotta tell you a little bit about Jason Peak. Uh you may know his name if you're a Midwesterner, uh, especially if you if you are in the Jackson, Michigan area. You may know uh Jason Peak from a little band uh that was called Kung Fu Diesel. Now, Kung Fu Diesel was just um I don't know, they're harder to find. They have this kind of uh amalgamation of rock and blues and country and RB and you know twangy vocals and stuff and these grooves and these these super fun lyrics. I listen to them driving down the road and I just start laughing. They they just make me happy. Well, when I when I got to Jackson, Michigan, because I lived out there a few years ago, uh Kung Fu Diesel uh had been around, but they they weren't really playing a lot at that time. So uh but there there was this mystique and this mystery and these legends that kind of uh surrounded Kung Fu Diesel uh as this hardworking no-frills band that that lived in the in the sweet spot of music that was really kind of prevalent and and homegrown in that area. Uh they didn't they they weren't really known as a band that chased fame. Uh they kind of earned respect in the old school way. They were just like a band that was known as hardworking, they just grinded it out and they delivered the goods live. So when I moved to Michigan in 2005, I almost immediately heard about Jason Peake and Kung Fu D school because he was a legend. And at that time, he was running a butcher shop. And you know, like when you're watching a horror flick and the kids all stop on the street and they point at the house up on the hill and they say, hey, you know who used to live in that house, and it's kind of there's this mystery surrounding it. Well, when they talked about Jason, it was like, hey, you know that guy that cuts me and shot him down. He used to be a rock star. He played with Ted Nugent. And then since Jason and I have played music together many times, including sharing the stage at a reunion show with Kung Fu Diesel after a few-year hiatus. And uh Jason is now rocking the mic as a solo act with uh occasional band flare-ups. He's one of the funniest guys I know. He has a knack for pithy grabbers and things that belong on bumper stickers and t-shirts. I don't even know where he comes up with this. He's a gigging musician uh who has played pyrotechnic stages and dive bars. Uh, you know, the dive bars where two guys are playing pool and they ask you to move out of the way when they order their you know PBRs. So Jason, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

Dude, so great to talk to you again, man. We got a lot of history and uh just so great. I was I was thrilled to do this.

SPEAKER_03 4:06

Uh it's it's super fun to have you here, and uh I can see you because we're recording via video, but uh we're just using the audio for this, so it is really good to see you.

SPEAKER_02 4:18

I have a face for radio.

SPEAKER_03 4:22

Don't we both? That's why I grow this beard, man. There you go. Me too. Covers up covers up a whole bunch of ugly. Uh so you're you're spending a lot of time on stage these days. Uh, I know that what what's getting you excited about being on stage these days?

SPEAKER_01 4:39

Honestly, I'm excited like that I still get to do it. Every gig makes me excited because when I started doing this as a kid, man, they're like, how long are you gonna do this? I'm like, as long as they let me. And to be completely honest, I didn't think they'd let me this long. And I still get phone calls, you know. I mean, I'm not I'm not working the phone all day pushing things. It's nice. I'm you know, I take gigs when they call and I keep pretty darn busy, you know. I don't have to go chase or promote or do all that, and I like that. I'm excited to still be doing it. That's the thrill for me. I love it. And now as a solo like acoustic thing, it's kind of I never had a desire to do that in my life ever, and I'm amazed at how much I enjoy it because I really do.

SPEAKER_03 5:23

Huh. Why didn't you picture yourself doing it before?

SPEAKER_01 5:27

Oh look well I was a front man. I was always I've always been a front man, and I just think that's that was the sweet spot, that's the epitome, that's the pinnacle I wanted to, you know. I liked being a front man. I mean I started out as a drummer sitting in the back, that didn't work for me. Um so I started I I came up front, and uh the catalyst was uh um COVID. COVID came, my calendar went away. I had some good fairs and festivals, cool shows, my calendar was awesome. COVID 19 came out and that all went away. So I was kind of waiting to see what the next move was, and one of my agents called and said, Hey, they're opening bars up, but only half full. Uh the clubs are half full, so nobody's hiring bands. And uh he said that uh, you know, you got anything you do? He's like, You I'm doing solo acoustic, and I was adamant against it. I never wanted to. I I really tried to talk him out of it. I said, Oh, dude, I don't do that hippie stuff, I don't hide in the corner, and you know I said I have no desire. I said, dude, I'm a front man. I play live with my band or I don't play. My agent's great. I've been working with him about 30 years, and after I got done with my tirade, he said, Cool, throw something together. I got work coming out my ears. Bye. And he hung up on me, and I thought for two seconds, I'm like, it's gotta be better than sitting on the couch. So I went and did it. And I love it. It's a stress-free gig, man. It's just you go out there and you know, you get to chat to people. There's not that big barrier with the stage, you're just right down and dirty, right with the people. I love that. And uh, I found out I was kind of good at it. And uh wait, I don't have to chase band guys around. That's like herding cats, you know. It's like I I just just me, I love this, you know. I don't have to depend on anybody, coordinate anything. I go to the gig, I play, I have a blast, and you know what else can you ask for?

SPEAKER_03 7:24

Yeah, man. Uh uh, that's so great. I'd love it. I can't wait to see you do a solo acoustic gig because I have only seen you up front uh shaking your groove thing and licking the mic like David Lee Roth.

SPEAKER_01 7:39

That's right, man. Old day, one of my mentors. Uh yeah, I'm just you know, I just I love doing it, man. It's so streamlined and so stress-free. And plus, you know what the great thing about hiding in the corner doing the hippie thing is you're not the front man. You don't, you're not, you don't feel pressure to do something interesting every 30 seconds, you know. I just get to play, and I love that. I don't have to don't get me wrong, I still play big stages and love that aspect of it, but I love this other thing equally well, so it's kind of cool. I'm glad I'm glad my agent didn't listen to me.

SPEAKER_03 8:17

That's great, man. I love that. You're a family man now. When I when I first when I first met you, your family wasn't what it is uh today.

SPEAKER_01 8:29

It's grown. It has grown. It was just me and Claire, um, my my little Claire, and we did great. We have a real close relationship, but then uh uh I met a lady from my small town of Parma, which is unbelievable. Like I've been all over the United States, and then I ended up with somebody from Parma, which is crazy. It's this tiny little village where I grew up, and I'm still world famous in the village of Parma. Get outside. But it was great. So I my my wife Andrea, we got together. Uh I had a Claire, she had a Claire, and a Christopher. So we have two Claire's and a Christopher, and then we had a Katie. So we got to like this blended family, and I don't know how we pulled it off, but everybody is just a everything worked out. Those blended families can be dicey, risky business, but somehow we pulled it off. We're not sure how, but we we we sure do like it.

SPEAKER_03 9:28

Now, do they see you as a world-renowned rock star? Your family. Oh no.

SPEAKER_01 9:35

No. I mean, I live with four women, so uh, which has been quite an education. And uh no, that was uh I thought that was gonna be my ticket to be in the cool dad. And I my daughter was just not having it, man. She's three, and she just like she did not like the band thing, she didn't like that everybody you know knew me and felt like they could come talk to me. We we went out to Aka Sushi one time, the cool sushi place, and she was about four, and I legit knew somebody at every single table, so I'm just kind of waving, going to the back where the only empty table was. And I could just tell Claire's fuming. She's looking at me, just steam coming out her ears, and she's like, geez, dad, do you know everybody? And then I I told her, I said, I want to play uh guitar for your youth group at church. Can I do that? She said, You can play, but I'm not gonna clap.

SPEAKER_03 10:32

That's that's pretty cool. That that is great. I love that your kids feel like they could have that honesty with you.

SPEAKER_01 10:40

Oh, I do too. And you know, I'm always reminded of this uh this there's this Dana Strum quote that I just love. I don't know. It's always resonated with me, but some yeah, I think it's an interview and a world-renowned rock star. Like nobody even knows who you are now that you were the guy guitar player of Clash. And he said, um, he said it's a good thing for a man to go from being somebody to being nobody. It's good for the soul. And I honestly, I don't know why that resonates. I don't know why, but I think that's true. I don't know. It's just it stuck me, stuck with me.

SPEAKER_03 13:25

Seriously, out outside of the music thing. He's a super hard worker, but it within the music context. Uh I've never seen anybody sweat as much as you to get things, you know, to happening. Uh, but so when did you realize that your talent alone wasn't going to cut it? Because you're also uh an amazing talented man, but I I know you you don't feel like that was going to carry you into stardom.

SPEAKER_01 13:55

I did in the beginning. And then Ted New just sent me straight. Oh, tell us about that. Yeah, I toured with Ted. I love that guy. Um but yeah, he just he told me. He said you can't make it out of music alone. And back then he was like he toured with Kiss with their first farewell tour, the first one. I think they had like 14 after that. Yeah, at least. The first one we thought it was for they were really quitting. So Ted was going with KISS, and then he was like playing with Do It Stuff with Kid Rock, and you know, that was just kind of around. And uh he's like, you can't he's like you can't do it on music alone, it doesn't happen. He's like, Look at me, I ride a buffalo out on stage. Uh KISS, where's there's breathe fire and where there's you know satanic mime makeup or whatever that is. And he's he said, you know, you gotta you gotta do I said oh I can't afford a buffalo Ted, but I gotta go. What if I wrote a goat out on stage and breathed fire? He laughed. But it's just the common knowledge. You gotta have a gimmick, you know. And I don't know if we I guess our biggest gimmick wasn't intended was our upright bass. People just loved that thing. It's a prop. It's a I mean, they love the upright bass. And we do a lot of fun stuff, like my bass. Bobby'll lay down on stage and play it, laying down on stage, and then I'll stand on it, and that's kind of the crowd pleaser. But then I'll put my guitar behind my my head, and then and the fun part is acting like I'm gonna fall off at any point, and people just, you know. Raises the tension. I love it. But I never, yeah, I don't know. I I always liked I was a lyric-oriented guy, and I just I like writing lyrics. I like writing songs. I'm a fan of the uh three-chord, three-minute pop song. That's my I just I grew up on that stuff and I love it. If you can't if you can't say what you have to say in three minutes, you need to edit. You know, not that I don't like the Bob Dylan 14-minute songs where he just rambles, you know, like uh but I don't know. I like that nice little package. First course, bridge solo, chorus out, you know, that kind of thing.

unknown 15:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:00

Third group, same as the first. My I think suppli simplicity is the I like to make that groove and that rock and roll thing thing happen with the least amount of moving parts possible. And part of that was just uh we were a three-piece band, we were streamlined, and I love playing in a three-piece band because you don't have to worry about stepping on anybody. I'm playing all I can to fill up that sound. But nobody's ever gonna accuse me of overplaying because I'm the only guitar player. My rhythms, I it's a rhythm section and a guitar player, so I gotta well, you know, we all try to make big noise, big sounds, and that's something they've always kind of people always commented, man, you guys you make a lot of noise for three rednecks, you know, that kind of thing, you know, like you guys make a lot of noise for three boys.

SPEAKER_03 16:46

You know that would have fit on a t-shirt, a lot of noise for three boys.

SPEAKER_01 16:52

Should have saved that one, but uh, but yeah, you know, it's just uh we just like playing. That was our thing, man. It was uh what was our uh our motivating force? Uh do a good job so we get ass back and get to the next gig. And that was that was as far as our ambition went, you know. I mean, me and Bobby started playing together. We met in sixth grade and we just played and played and played, and we always knew from sixth grade on we were gonna tour someday. That was just there was never a question about it. So when we got there, it was like I was a sponge, man. I was a babe in the woods. I didn't know anything, and I knew that. I kept my mouth shut and my ears open. And actually, not to bring up Ted, but he's again, but he's been such a mentor. And he always told me, he's like, pay attention, use your ears, beyond the wear. He said, You never know what you're learning when you're learning it. And if that had that has rung true in my life so many times, it's like, oh, wait a minute, I have an arrow in the quiver, I know how to deal with this. I s I saw one, you know.

SPEAKER_03 17:55

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's okay that you brought up Ted, because I'd I'd actually like to ask you a little bit more about him, because Ted is such a polarizing figure, and we don't have to dive into that. We just we just know he is. So uh, but I've also had breakfast with you. So I I I I want to know how how did your connection happen there with Ted? You know, how did that whole thing come about?

SPEAKER_01 18:22

Kind of a fun story. Um, I uh so we put out a CD because we just knew we were gonna tour and put out a CD. There was never that was not a if and it was just a when are we gonna get this CD out? So we put that out, and we just played and played and played. I mean, we were getting out everywhere, you know. It's like, oh, you got seven, you'll pay us $70 to drive to Flint to play on a Monday night. We're there. Never mind, we'd spend a hundred in gas in our junky van, but we didn't care, you know? It was just like we'll play it. And uh, so we're out, I mean, we're pounding the pavement hard, and it wasn't a flog. It's like we've been training for this, man. This is this is what you always wanted to do, and now we got the shot. Let's let's do it. And uh so we're getting a little buzz and things are happening, and then uh and we got some college airplanes, we even got some FM radios, like uh regionally, locally. I don't know how we did it, but back then you could do that kind of. Um, and so we were on corporate radio here and there. And then one day I'm sitting at home and somebody calls me and I said, Hello. And the other guy says, Are you man enough? And I said, Uh, who's this? And he said, This is Ted F and Nugent. I want to get together and jam, and I want to know if you're man enough. And at that point, I'm like, uh uh, that's just not a phone call you expect, right?

SPEAKER_03 19:51

And so stammering.

SPEAKER_01 19:54

I was just a kid. I was just like, uh he said, Are you man enough? I said, God, I hope so, Ted. And he said, I'll be the first to judge you. He said, When do you want to get together? Of course, of course. Yeah. Oh, he never stops, man. It's great. Um, and uh I he said, When when do you want to get together? And I said, Ted, I'd be willing to bet that your schedule's a little busier than mine. I said, You tell me when you want to get together, and I'll probably be able to squeeze it in. And he laughed. He's like, So what's your uh you know, what's your influences? You guys are like, you know, I grew up in the 70s, was it like, you know, Kiss and and you know, Van Halen, this and that. I'm like, I love those guys. I got into the metal stuff later, but man, I like to go back to the original greats. You know, we cut our teeth on Chuck Berry, Ray Charles, uh, you know, the Stones, the Beatles, um, and I didn't know that, but that was the stuff that Ted grew up on. And the Motown, you know, Motown, James Brown, the soulful stuff. I mean, I live in Michigan. We're, you know, musically speaking, we're all downriver from Detroit, man. I mean, you know, it's just it's in the soil, it's in the water. Like, even our country bands can group, you know, like it's just that's the that's the thing, man. And that's all that matters, really, in my mind. That or at least if that ain't there, nothing else is gonna work. You know, that's the foundation. It's the group, you know. I want to move people. I want to make them, I want to see some action. And that's you know, and I honestly I I knew that when I started, but Ted takes that to a whole nother level, man. Like, he's going to get a reaction out of the crowd. If he has to kick the people in the face in the front row, something's gonna happen, you know. If he has to shoot a flaming arrow, you know, across the stage at a into a birdland guitar, if he has to ride a buffalo out on like you're something's gonna happen. I can't tell you what'll happen at the next Ted Nugent concert, but something. You know, he'll do something like whoa, I did not expect that. So Yeah, just a mentor. And then uh so we got together. Ted came out to our studio. It was great. He comes out to our studio and uh he said, I got about a half hour. I just want to see what you guys are up to, man. I heard your stuff on the radio, love it. I like what you're doing. He said, I thought you guys were like older Motown guys. I'm like, what is this, man? He's like, you know, you made that thing happen. However, you did that, you made it. You got that thing happening. And he said, I just want to kind of cultivate what you got going on and you know, maybe add to it and see, you know, have some fun. He said, we should get together and torture each other. So uh he hung out. He had a he had a half hour, and uh, after the half hour, he's like, All right, one more. And he was great because he was trying to like he's like, You ought really ought to learn Johnny be good, and then he starts playing Johnny be good. We just look at each other and come in, and then he's like, What? And we play Johnny be good. And he's like, you know, you ought to play some kinks. And he started playing some kinks, and we just join in with him, and he's like, What the heck? And he couldn't believe it. How about you ever played What did I say, Ray Charles? And he's playing, and then we just join in. He's like, we were blowing his mind. So after the half hour is up for about four hours here. All right, he's like, I gotta blast off, but one more. Well, let's do one more song. So he's there all day. It was great. And uh I didn't know if I was ever gonna play with Ted again, and he's in my studio, so I'm getting this on tape, man. That's just the way it is. He's in my studio, I'm running tape. So uh I had my engineer in the sound booth, and uh he's recording, he's mixing, but his lights, he's not there, and uh well, Ted moves a lot when he plays, and he kicked over a mic in front of his aunt. And my engineer comes out like a little secret squirrel and fixes the mic and then goes back into this recording room. Ted stops, and we're like, oh. And he looks all of us in the eye. He said, You recording this? I'm like, uh, yeah. And he looked at me and I said, Cool, if it gets released, I'll kill all of you. I still have that tape. I've never released that it will not be released.

SPEAKER_03 24:05

Oh, that's so fun.

SPEAKER_01 24:07

And truly, I kind of half believe him, so that tape ain't coming out, man. So it's great.

SPEAKER_03 24:14

No, no, no, no. I I would not I would not let that tape see the uh light of day.

SPEAKER_01 24:20

I've let a few people hear it, but it's just like one of those things that's kind of cool, you know. I mean, like for that guy to just take some time and and kind of you know pours wisdom into us, it was great, man. I was just a just a sponge, you know. Even at the time, I'm like, I can't afford music lessons like this, you know? It was like I was and Ted, man, he kicked open a lot of doors. We toured with him. I played at his 50th birthday party, and after that, we just kind of it just increased our market value. I don't know what, but once we proved we could do that, we were just like a solid Midwestern opening act, you know. I mean, I just I played with my heroes, you know. I played it was the I call them the 70s S kicker bands, you know, like Molly Hatchet, Leonard Skinner, Charlie Daniels, you know, that that whole Southern Rock, they loved us. And and we were kind of thrown into the rockabilly thing, but it was just we're just we're we're weird, man. It's 145, but it's country and Motown and Punk Rock, and you know, I got my Dylan, I got my motorhead, and I like to think all that stuff just comes out, you know. Um, and you know, and a little bit of I don't know. We first started, I used to say we were a rockabilly soul band. Yeah, because honestly, I I that was my my introduction to this stuff. I mean, I was like, I was nine years old at the Jackson County Fair. There was a band called Benny Pool and the Earth Flight Band. Oh, yeah, Benny Pool. Oh, Benny, local legend, man. Love that guy. He's another mentor, man. Like, I got to meet these guys, and man, I had questions. Like, how do you do this? What do you do that? What about that? Why does that happen that way? But I went up, me and my bass player Bobby went up to Benny Pool playing at the Jackson County Fair. They went on break. And me being the precocious little whatever I've always been, I just went up to him and said, I want to do what you do. How do you do that? And he said, Oh, don't do what I do. He said, Ain't much call for soul bands no more. He said, Do something else. And I'm like, Alright, I'll I did so I did that, but I was just like, everybody I knew that like music will happen in LA and New York and Nashville, and I was on TV. And then there's this guy at the fair. I'm like, wait, you can you can do that here? I don't have to go to LA. I'm like, whoa. It just I don't know, I was nine. I didn't know anything. I was like, oh, I can do this here. So I just learned and learned. And then Benny's pool, oh, his band was so good. His guitar player was Willie Woods. Willie Woods played for a band called Junior Walker and the All-Stars. They had a hit called Shotgun. Shoot it to the great song. Look it up if you don't know it out there, internet people, it's worth hearing. And that's my buddy Willie Woods on the guitar. Yeah, so like when I grew up in Michigan, when I started getting the music scenes, there's just all these guys, these like old Motown guys, and there's these old like P-Funk. I bet I met 60 different guys around Detroit that said they were a guitar player for P Funk, and uh I believe every single one of them, because if you watch that band, they have like 12 guitar players, so I never I'm like, hey, probably was. And just the just the funk and the grit and those dirty grooves those guys played, and it's just like that's that was it for me. And that's what Ted Blond is like, man, you guys just play down and dirty, like those guys I used to play with in Detroit back in the 60s. Like this, you got that down. I'm like, we grew up on it. It's like, why a bunch of young guys want to learn songs from the 50s? And we said that's when music was fun. He's like, it has that F and feeling, man. That's what it's all about. Rock and roll is a sound, it's a sound about a feeling. And that's that's how I look at music. It really is. It's a sound about a feeling. If you do it right, you can make other people. And if you do it right, you can make other people feel that feeling, you know. I mean, that's it, man. That's the buzz. That's that's my that's my my drug of choice. Yeah. Kept us out of trouble. We just love music so much, you know?

SPEAKER_02 28:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:27

And our town is tiny, and it's like, you know, you got like two options. You can get into meth or watch some corn grow, and neither one of those appealed to us. So we got instruments, you know, and we just played and played. I mean, we would literally get off the bus, run home, grab our instruments, and play as loud and as long as we could until our parents said, Hey, knock that off. And then we'd then we'd write songs and talk about music. And that I mean, that was just every day when we were kids. That's all we did. Uh it was, you know, I mean, we just logged the hours, man. Just play and play and play and play.

SPEAKER_02 29:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:02

And uh, and then and that's what we did. And there's another local legend named JD Boone. And uh great guitar player, classic rocker, you know, he was doing kind of my what I was doing, you know. He used to be the local, regional, cool thing. He had a band called Flight. So good. But JD Boone, love him, good friend, harshest critic I ever met. I mean, just harsh. He doesn't pull punches. So if I got an idea that I want to know if it works, I run it by JD because he will poke holes in it and he'll have a good time doing it. And I like that guy. But I was out at a campground a couple summers ago and visit my kids who's standing there at the campground and oh, they got a band tonight. I'm like, oh cool, I'm gonna go peek in and see who it is. I might know. It's JD Boone's band. It's like, dude, you got your guitar? I'm like, yeah. You got an amp? Yeah. Go get it. You're playing with us tonight. Alright. So we got up there. I said, let me be on this side. I want to see your hands. And uh, if I was sucked, I was waiting for JD to just kick me off the stage and tell me how bad I sucked. Because that's JD. I'm like, I don't know, I'll take a gamble. We'll see if we have fun. And uh, I got up there and I played a song, and I played another one, and I played another one. Before I know it, I'm playing the whole set, and I'm watching his hands, and I'm using my ears. Ted always another Ted, he just trained me, dude. He's like, use your ears. That's the he's like, you want to write songs? Use your ears. Good composers borrow, great composers steal. Listen to what they're doing, listen how they're making that happen. And and that's this is a tangent, but that's why I love uh I love AI music. It's like take a song and throw every cliche into it, and it's like it's a great, you know, it's like every single trope and cliche. It's like you want to learn the basics, listen to some AI music, man.

SPEAKER_03 30:50

And I know we're supposed to hate that, but uh, no, but that's such an interesting twist on that, because every musician I know hates AI music. So for you to say you listen to it because you're able to hear how it is uh you know, disingenuous in a way, you know. I mean, but at the same time being true to the only thing it knows, and the only thing it knows is how to copy everything. Exactly. So you can you can learn.

SPEAKER_01 31:22

You can. No, it's not like playing with humans, and I will never say that. And that's the biggest thing. If you if you're not playing with humans, find some and play with them. Because you just gotta get that cohesive unit going. You can't do it playing in your bedroom, you can't just because you can get good in your bedroom. Then we start playing with humans, it goes out the window, like that's a whole different ball game, and then you get pretty good there. Wow. Then you start playing in front of people, and that throws you another curveball, because now I'm not playing in my bedroom, I'm playing with dudes, but now I got people watching. So they can just keep adding that extra layer, and you know, we just we knew what the goal was and we went for it, you know, and we just uh played and played. So, anyway, sorry, we veered off into technology, which I love now. I hated it, I stayed away from it in the 80s, 90s, most of the 2000s because it was too mechanical, too fake. But there's just it's better now. It's not playing with humans, it'll never replace that for me because I like playing with humans, but it's a distant second, you know? Sure. It's got its place, you know. But anyway, so I I I I veered off like I'm prone to do. But with speaking, getting back to the campground gig with JD Boone, I played the whole set, and I couldn't believe he didn't kick me off the stage. And then when we got done, he looked at me, he said, You didn't know one single song we just played. He said, I said, no, I was just listening, watching your fingers. And he just shook his head. He said, I always knew you were gonna be good. He said, When you first came out, he's like, It was a little rough. I said, Dude, we started, we learned to play on stage. And uh we legit, that's where we learned. Yeah. But he said, and you know, you guys, he's like in the beginning when you guys were young kids, he said, it was awful. And I said, That I said, I I said this, I said, Those guys are gonna play and play and play and play. He said, Those guys are gonna be good someday. And he was right. So I I played the other two sets with him. I played the other two sets just watching his fingers, and but it's just you know, one thing, if you're gonna play with humans, I really wish more guys would really just take this to heart. Like be polite, you know, as a musician, be polite, stay out of people's way. If it's not your solo, play power chord, get out of the way, you know. I'm like, I started out as a drummer, and one thing they beat into your head is that less is more. And I think when you're part of the rhythm section, that is exactly right. And uh, you know, you just less is more, kick back. Like if you're gonna step on somebody's solo, they're not gonna want to pick up you again, you know? Because that guy building a solo, he's constructing a song within a song. That's what a solo is. It's a tiny little song, a little interview. But if you're doing your thing, you can't build that tension and release, you're messing it up. So I stay out of the way. Best advice play power chords, don't mess with the third. Because if they're playing pentatonics, you know, that's the nicest thing you can do for guitar players, especially keyboard players. Stay away from the third, man, when I'm soloing. Because I might use either one, you know, it just gets weird, you know. And it sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But if you don't play the third, there's no problem. That's what you know, just simple little things like that. You know, you learn playing with humans, or you know what? He's got a telly, I'm playing my hollow body on the bridge pickup because I don't want to step on his frequencies. He's high pitched. If I come out with a strat on the bridge pickup, we're gonna blend and fight. So mind your frequencies, don't step on my frequencies, man. You know, think about that stuff, you know.

SPEAKER_03 34:50

Oh no, that's that's all good advice. I love that.

SPEAKER_01 34:53

Take up the space that's not being taken. You know, somebody's in the upper range, all right. Bass players down low. I'm gonna find that sweet spot in the middle, you know. Like, just be polite. If it's your time, if it's your turn to shine, shine. Give them the full Monty. Do your thing. But if you're playing rhythm, know the difference. You know, there's there's a difference between playing being the guy, playing lead, and being the guy kicking back. And I I love playing a rhythm section. It's about the groove, it's about locking into that that thing and making it happen, you know. Get a little behind the beat, a little bit, you know. Just you know, you don't you don't play like Dvo. I love Dvo, but they're all right on the beat, and that sounds mechanical.

SPEAKER_03 35:34

Yeah, and that's their thing. That's that's their thing.

SPEAKER_01 35:36

That's their thing, and I I love that stuff. When I was a kid, that Whippet song came out. I'd never heard anything like it. I loved it. You know, so I just think there's a place for everything.

SPEAKER_03 35:45

There's a great documentary out on them right now, by the way. Really? Yeah, yeah, you should watch it. I think it's less than a year old. It's it's fantastic. But uh super, super fun. Do you have do you have any routines that you're in like to prepare you for a gig? How do you get your get yourself into the mindset? Or do you?

SPEAKER_01 36:08

Honestly, I thought I yeah, but I just it's the drive to the gig, man. I just gotta get in the right headspace, you know? It's like I'm just driving to the gig, just kind of, you know, I don't know, getting mentally prepared, whatever that means. I feel like I just I gotta be in a certain state and I know how to leave work and you know, put away my bloody knives and get my head right to go show some folks a good time. That's what it's about, you know. Um but yeah, I don't have a ritual or anything. It's just like once I pack up that's the ritual, packing up all my stuff, making sure I got everything I need. And then that drive to the gig that you know, I I like to get there early and uh take a leisurely drive and just get my head right. I don't know. I just I know how I have to feel to put on a good show and I know how to get there. I don't know how, but I do it on the drive there, but I don't yeah, I don't have any ritual or any like setting up. That's my you know. Yeah, yeah. That's my thing. I know what I'm doing, I know it's ready to go. Let's, you know, I check this, check that, check that, cool. Talk to the bar owner, make contact, hi, whatever, you know. Just that whole process, and then I'm re when I get done with all that, I'm I'm ready to play. You know, I guess after doing it forever, it just kind of became a routine or a ritual, you know.

SPEAKER_03 37:28

But that's that's wise. The routine and the ritual, you know, um, they uh those rhythms play into our our preparation and our mindset and our headspace, and we know even if we don't in the moment name this as something that's preparing me, when something jacks with that, then it messes with us, right? Like exactly. You don't know, yeah. You if you have to race to the gig and get there at the last minute, you're not gonna be in the right spot.

SPEAKER_01 38:02

No, you're not. You're gonna be panicked. I want to feel good, you know. And my shows, you know, we're a little rednecky, we play with the southern fried rocket dudes, but truthfully, man, a Kung Fu Diesel show is just relaxed and groovy. That's the vibe, you know. I mean, it's just it's a hippie thing, you know? Hey, come on in. We don't care who you are, come come jam with us. We're having fun. How are you? Yeah, glad you're here. It's good.

SPEAKER_00 38:28

Okay, it's it's a timeless, timeless classic. Just give it some time. Just give it some in the making. We got Jason Peak, we got Rick Wrangler, Kung Fu D. Here we go. Five. And there it is. Good easel right here on Jackson's new high country 101.5.

SPEAKER_03 41:30

If a kid walked up to you uh today in Parma uh in the village of Parma with a guitar and said, uh, I've heard about you. What does it take to be a rock star? You know, what kind of a what kind of advice do you give this young boy or girl?

SPEAKER_01 41:52

Yeah, that's a great question. Um, I don't know. You asked me what it's like to be a rock star, I'd say call Ted. You know? Uh I don't know. I just never viewed myself in those terms. I'm a I'm a meat guy that got lucky enough to play music for a living. You know, that's it. It's not about for me, it's never been about being anything. It's just something I like to do a lot. You know, but I try not to my daughters helped me with this, but I tr I try not to think about it, really, you know? And you know, my my daughters they tell they know exactly who I am. Just a you know, a dork who really likes music. And that's I would tell him uh this kid, don't worry about the rock star thing, that's a distraction. It's uh probably tell him Chuck Berry, one four five blues minor pentatonic. Learn that stuff inside and out, and you can you can get a lot of mileage out of that, you know, especially in rock and roll. Um but uh just they need to know. I try to tell every kid, we're all stealing from Chuck Berry. We some of us don't know it, but we are, and every musician worth a salt knows that. I mean, it's in the Bob Seeger song, Rock and Roll Never Forgets. He says, uh there's a line in there that says, Come uh, all of Chuck's children are out there playing his licks. And we're all Chuck's children, whether you know it or not. And you know, I've heard it. It's just everybody it's just you know we all know we're disciples of Chuck Berry. I mean, Ted Nugent said, uh he said that um he said everything I ever played I stole from Keith Richards, and everything Keith Richards stole or played, he stole from Chuck Berry. He's like, we all learn from Chuck Berry. And you know, there's the argument that he was the original, you know, there's there's like a three way debate. Some people say Chuck Berry invented rock and roll, some people say it was Bo Diddley, and then some people say it was Ike Turner with his song Rocket 88. That's all it's all of them. Learn from all of them, you know. But I would tell him uh listen to Chuck Berry, you need your Chuck Berry, your James Brown, and your Motown. You know, you get that, you're gonna be A groover man just live in that, swim in that, marinating that stuff, and and listen to James Brown. There is so much going on, but nobody's really playing anything. Like, listen to the dun everybody's choppy and breaking. It's uh nobody's playing much of anything, but you got all these aspects coming out, dude, you know, and and you know, I just I learned so much from these guys, and I've heard it more than once. Uh listen for the gaps, listen for the hole, listen to what they're not playing. Because if you don't have gaps, there's no funk, there's no groove, you know. You just got a drone going, you know, break it up, syncopation. Um, or like, you know, like I heard John Bottom style drums was, you know, tight but sloppy. And I know exactly what that means. You're you're on the beat, you're playing, you're grooving, but it's a little sloshy. You know, it's a little, you know, funky. Syncopating.

SPEAKER_02 44:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:59

And uh that's that's it, man. But I tell him Chuck Berry, man, start there. Because everybody steals from him. And yes, steal the steal the tricks. Listen to AI music. Listen to a a three-minute AI. You want to hear all the all the cliches and all the tropes that have been overdone for years. It's good to know those. They're cool to throw them in here and there, you know? So I like the cliches, you just don't overdo them. They all have their place, you know.

SPEAKER_03 45:28

Yeah, yeah, for sure. I love that. That's good wisdom. And there was something that you said uh earlier, and I I just uh I want it to land. I hope people heard you say, and I'll I'll just paraphrase it's it's not about being, it's about doing, you know, it's like yeah, sure, keep your eye on the prize, but it's not about becoming as much as it is uh well, I guess it's about becoming for sure, but as you're doing, you're it's it's a work in progress.

SPEAKER_01 46:00

Yeah, it's just like yeah, exactly. I like I I you know, I I just wanted to get better, you know, like serve the song better. Just serve the song. Don't serve that's that makes for really bad music, you know. I just serve the song, listen to other songs. Like if nobody's playing a million notes, then the song's on the radio, so maybe take a cue from them. I think young guys act like they're getting paid by the note sometimes, you know? Like, if I can put a you know a million notes in every bar, wow, I'm awesome. Nobody wants to hear that. That reminds me of a story. I mean, just musicians veer off into the stuff that normal people don't want to listen to. And uh when David Leeroff joined Van Halen, they were like prog rockers. I mean, those guys are as technical as they want to be, they know the stuff. And so the first thing they did, I think David had the PA, so that's why he got led into the band. And that the first thing we do is for band practice. He said we set up the PA and we had a practice, and we invited every girl in the neighborhood that we knew. He said, and we only kept the songs they would dance to. He's like, you know, some weird interlude that Ed made. He's like, No, man, if the chicks ain't if they're not dancing, we're not playing it. And honestly, it kind of worked for him because they're doing way less than they can do, but that just that interplay. Like, if you wanna you wanna get down to the granular level and in songs, I love listening to isolated bass and drums like of my hits, because I love that foundation. Like, listen to Beautiful Girls by Van Halen, the bass and drum part, or listen to jump. That solo, the the rhythm part and the jump solo, it's just the syncopation, and the just it's it's awesome, you know. And we love Eddie, and we know he's great, but he had a world-class rhythm section underneath him, and there's no way Eddie would never have sounded that good without without Alex and Michael Anthony. I mean, it's just they're they are so good, and they are I'm feeling Motown, I'm feeling funk, I'm feeling you don't really associate that with Van Halen, but I'm telling you, that's the underpinning. And listen to bass and drum stracks. I love that. It's just fun because you can't sometimes you can't really hear the bass, you can't really what's going on, but then when you hear it in full view, it's like, wow, those guys are awesome. You know, it's just yeah.

SPEAKER_03 48:26

I love it.

SPEAKER_01 48:27

Use your ears.

SPEAKER_03 48:28

Hey man, thanks for being on this today. It's fun. I have a feeling people are gonna listen to this episode a couple of times just to take in all of the the little nuggets of wisdom here and there, and maybe to listen to your cat screaming at you again, because that was we have kidding. That was fun every once in a while, too. Uh, if people I think I did hear a rooster in there. If uh if somebody wants to get in touch with you to book a gig, how do they reach you?

SPEAKER_01 49:00

Oh, uh honestly, I just do business by Facebook now. Shoot me a message on Facebook. My name's Jason Peak, I'm the one with the guitar. Or shoot me a message. Uh, you know, we got a Kung Food Eastel page on Facebook. Everybody just uses Facebook, you know. And like I say, I don't I'm not out pounding the pavement. I I keep pretty busy, but if somebody wants me, hook me up on you know, hit me up on Facebook. We'll we'll do something fun. I don't know what, but we'll make something happen.

SPEAKER_03 49:30

That's awesome, man. Hey, thanks for taking the time. Love you, bro. Love you, man.