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Put Some Altitude in Your Glass
46: G Brown: Colorado Music Experience founding director and author
Nov 12, 2022
46: G Brown: Colorado Music Experience founding director and author
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FULL TRANSCRIPT
0:00
[upbeat music] You're listening to Denver Wine Radio, the podcast about Colorado wine. My name is Paul Bonacosti.
0:10
I'm the winemaker at Bonacosti Wine Company, an urban winery I launched back in 2006 in Denver, Colorado, where I've been making and learning about wine ever since.
0:20
I'm sitting down with other wineries and wine experts to find out what makes Colorado wine so unique, and to help you find the wines you like to drink. And now, let's put some altitude in your glass.
0:33
This week on Denver Wine Radio, I'm joined by Colorado Music Experience founding director and author G Brown.
0:40
G covered popular music at the Denver Post for 26 years, interviewing well over 3,200 musicians, including Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Mick Jagger, and Kurt Cobain.
0:51
He's also amassed an archive of close to 15,000 rare promotional photos, and he's put them all into a new book series called On Record. Please welcome to Denver Wine Radio, G Brown. Okay.
1:04
Welcome everybody to Denver Wine Radio. In studio today, our special guest, G Brown. What's the G stand for? What does it... [laughs] I didn't know until I got your email that it's- [laughs]... it's Gary.
1:19
[laughs] It's not a secret. I tell people Golden, Golden Brown. Do you buy that, Paul? I, yeah, Golden Brown, I like that. [laughs] The color of, uh, your, your old hair. My choice. Yeah. Yeah. [laughs] Yeah.
1:32
Hey man, tell everybody who you are- [laughs]... and what you do. G Brown. Man- I-... 'cause you got, you have a m- amazing history in Denver. Well, I appreciate that. I've been a very lucky boy. I, uh,
1:46
grew up here, uh, in Arvada and attended CU, but, uh, ended up writing for The Denver Post, contracting with them to cover popular music for 26 years, back when newspapers meant something.
1:59
It's kind of an antiquated notion these days. [laughs] But also used that opportunity to do a lot of radio work in the market. I think I worked for pretty much every station in one configuration or another. Yeah.
2:12
And, uh- I remember you at KAZY. Yeah, that was a lot of fun with Joe Meyers and the, the crew there. Yeah. That was way back, I was in high school. Late '80s, I believe. Yeah. Late '80s?
2:27
Oh, I guess I was out of high school by then. What about early '80s, where were you? Uh, writing for the paper. I, I had delved into radio a little bit, but, uh, mostly just earning my bones, as they say, to
2:39
be writing about popular music. Uh, got to meet and, uh, interview so many incredible people over the decades.
2:47
Uh, in, uh, recent years, 2011, I was the founding director of the Colorado Music Hall of Fame, and these days I run Colorado Music Experience, which is a repository for Colorado music history.
3:01
We do podcasts, many documentaries, interview-based profiles, photo galleries, blogs. It's my passion, and no one else is doing it. [laughs] It is- So it's, uh- And it is an amazing website.
3:15
I found the section on the Rainbow Music Hall and just started listening to the cuts that you have on there. Yeah. We're creating content.
3:23
That makes us a rather unique nonprofit, but, uh, should be said, we're a 501[c][3] educational and cultural organization, nonprofit not only on paper, but there's no money coming in, Paul- [laughs]...
3:38
so we have it on both fronts, okay? Okay. [laughs] Well, I'm right there with you then. [laughs] So, okay, let's go back to writing for The Denver Post. And how did you get that gig?
3:51
I mean, how did you convince them, "Hey, I'm the guy that needs to interview every artist that [laughs] comes to town, every concert, and review it"? Well, it was interesting.
4:03
I, uh, started out, I'll give you a little pretext if I could. Growing up in Arvada, it was apparent that my high school band wasn't going to be playing at Red Rocks anytime soon. Uh, I aspired to be in Python Deity.
4:20
Don't even think about it, Paul. [laughs] It's taken, okay? Okay. Uh, [laughs] but I, uh, channeled my passion into wanting to write about music.
4:28
Rode my bike down to the Arvada Citizen, which was one of the suburban chain of, uh, Sentinel Newspapers. You know, there was the Cherry Creek model, the Lakewood model, and 26 in all. Okay. And, uh,
4:44
went down there with a horrible column I had written about something I had read in Stereo Review, where you could actually wash your vinyl records if they were dirty with mild detergent and warm water, right?
4:54
[laughs] Oh my God. [laughs] The editor- Now there's machines that do that for- [laughs]... uh, 100 bucks they cost. [laughs] Yeah, yeah, I was a little ahead of my time.
5:03
The editor at the time was a gentleman named Mark Wolfe, who went on to have a fantastic career with the Rocky Mountain News, uh, sports writer, city side reporter. He was fresh out of college.
5:14
He was 22, I'm 15, and I think he just enjoyed having someone sit at the edge of his desk, uh, w- so he could regale me with the tales of The Yardbirds playing his senior prom back in Illinois.
5:26
Uh, the, uh, he was a big music fan, and he's in an office with middle-aged women covering city council meetings. Uh, th- I was, I guess, an oasis.
5:35
He let me start reviewing records, and at that point, when you were published, when you were in print, you were a writer. Those were your credentials at that point.
5:46
And at, uh, after a few months, I parlayed that into an interview with The Guess Who, 1970, Denver Coliseum. Wow. And i- it was just a more innocent time, you know? I, I don't know how I pulled it off, in retrospect.
5:59
I just, you know- Yeah... sent a letter, made a phone call, and, uh, okay, they're not doing anything else with it, you know?
6:05
[laughs] Show up- Backstage in my eighth grade brown wool graduation suit, orange shirt, and matching tie, um, in the middle of July.
6:16
[laughs] And so I'm here for the interview, and I'm sure Burton Cummings, who was The Guess Who's lead singer and my idol at the time, I thought he had the greatest voice in rock and roll, he must have taken someone aside and said, "Who the hell sent this kid-" Right...
6:31
you know, to, to the interview. But he talked to me. He picked his toes the entire time. [laughs] Uh, it was great. I hadn't gone to journalism school yet.
6:39
There was that demystification, if you will, of meeting a celebrity. You realize, you know, he's just a guy. Don't ask him about the Middle East situation. [laughs] Just, yeah... just do music, right?
6:50
And so after that, I parlayed that experience into an interview with a guy named Joe Walsh, who had just moved- Hmm... to Colorado, uh, from Cleveland, where the James Gang had broken up.
7:02
He relocated to the mountains outside of Nederland, was a ham radio operator for a, a tad while he got his pins under him.
7:11
He was going to debut his new band, Barnstorm, at some now forgotten bar on Colfax, just a cinder block edifice. Wow. And, uh, that was gonna be their first gig.
7:22
I show up 4:00 in the afternoon, go in, say, "I'm here f- to interview Mr. Walsh," and they wouldn't let me in. I was obviously and woefully underage, right? [laughs] Right. Was probably 16 at this stage.
7:34
And I said, "Well, if you'd tell Mr. Walsh I showed up, I'd appreciate it." Went back out in the parking lot, only car there, right?
7:42
Dirt parking lot, and kicking the floorboard, wondering what to do, getting ready to take off, and the door to the club opens up, and Joe Walsh sticks his head out, sees I'm sitting there.
7:53
Walks over, gets in the passenger side, and proceeded to talk to me for an hour and 15 minutes, just pouring his heart out about, you know, launching a solo career after- Wow... his previous experiences. Unbelievable.
8:07
That's incredible. And I tell these stories, Paul, because, uh, uh, it's just instructive to me.
8:13
If I'd have been shut down at that age, you know, no matter what I was doing, what anybody's doing, you're devastated, right? Mm-hmm. You, you, you t- you just, you don't know what to do. But I was encouraged.
8:25
Those two guys talked to me, Burton and Joe. [laughs] And I will always be indebted to them for that, because all of a sudden I just had the, the zeal of the newly converted, you know?
8:34
I was like, "Well, sheesh, I'm gonna interview everybody." And- Yeah... I kinda did. [laughs] You... That's right. As a, as a journalist. I mean, you had two big ones under your belt right there.
8:42
[laughs] Well, I was, uh, I was just so lucky, and I'm so grateful. So [laughs] sorry to be bloviating here, Paul. No, it's wonderful.
8:51
Uh, but, uh- And I just wanna say, you have the, the, the personality you have is just inviting, and you have a natural attraction to likability.
9:01
[laughs] Well, I- Just from the f- couple of times I've met you, so I could see where Joe Walsh would just sit down with you, uh, even at a young age you were, so. Well, I've,
9:12
I don't know that I'm a, a great writer, but I've turned into a pretty good interviewer, you know? I think it's just a matter of doing your homework.
9:20
As long as you're not asking people inane questions that you could read in their bio or whatever- Right... you know?
9:26
And just, just have genuine interest in what they do, everybody likes to talk about [laughs] themselves, even the most obdurate rock star.
9:33
[laughs] If you get through all the sycophants and stuff, you just g- gotta treat them the way you'd wanna be treated conversationally. But I appreciate your saying that.
9:42
I went to CU, got a degree in journalism on the seven-year program, and, uh, in the middle of that, approached The Denver Post.
9:51
Their writer, who was a, a freelancer, had a weekly column about popular music that was invariably about the band that had played the 3/2 bar down the block that would break up the following Tuesday, or a, a screed about what crappy review tickets he got to the concert [laughs] that he went to.
10:10
[laughs] It really wasn't very compelling. And, uh, I just went down. Dick Kreck, who was well known as a Denver Post columnist, he was the entertainment editor at the time, 1977, and I was...
10:24
I probably came off as pretty cocky. I just said, "Hey, I can do better." And I had at that point a, a feature on Genesis that I had done. Mm-hmm. And he says, "Wow. You got more of this stuff?" "Yes, I do."
10:36
[laughs] And, uh, and we were off to the races. I, I was there for 26 years. Wow. And, uh, that's how I built my empire, Paul. [laughs] Yeah.
10:48
Absolutely, an empire of 3,200 artists or so, you, you interviewed over the years? I have- Or, or more than that? I ended up counting it, because I'm doing a series of books now called On Record.
11:00
It's a little ambitious, kind of an encyclopedia of, uh, the years 1978 to 1998, each taken individually with the album releases of that year.
11:10
Very proud that it's first person bloviating, eh, essays on what it all meant, eh. And it's, it's the bands talking about that album in that year. I'm fiercely proud of it.
11:23
But yes, the, uh, the idea that 3,248 interviews is what I- Wow... added up. Yeah. I, I... The, the first step was to go back. I had collected all of the
11:36
archival photography, um, the press photos, 8x10s over the years, 50 Bankers boxes worth, as it turned out. And someone said, "Well, gee, there's a book here."
11:48
And I didn't disagree, but I didn't think that the 100 Greatest Press Kits of All Time coffee table book would have that much cache. [laughs] So then I looked to my writing, which I own. I was a contractor with The Post.
12:00
And, uh, yeah, that's when I added it up, 3,248 interviews- That's incredible... just at, at the paper. There was- Yeah... ancillary stuff too.
12:08
So having that- To provide the editorial mix, if you will, to the photography. And then- And I was off to the races. So On Record, the books, uh, you've got three out, and they're, they're set by years.
12:21
So yeah, you started with 1978, you got 1984, and 1991. Mm-hmm. And how did you decide on those years? 1978 kind of planted the flag. That was my first full year at the Post- Okay...
12:34
where I had these resources to draw upon. So, uh, figured I'd start there. Kind of arbitrarily went six years to 1984. Six years is an eternity in pop music, right? Yeah.
12:48
So, um, I figured that would give it a, a difference.
12:51
I didn't wanna do things chronologically, because if a kid was into, say, grunge music, I didn't want him to have to wait till I wrote 13 books [laughs] to get to that point.
13:00
[laughs] So leapfrogged to 1984, which was the MTV era, right? Right. Huey, and Madonna, and Cindy, and Prince. Oh, Van Halen and- Oh- Yeah... all that stuff. So we had '78, which is classic rock central, right?
13:18
'84, MTV stuff. Go another six years, and we hit '90, and I realized, man, if I just fudge one more year, I'll hit the sweet spot with grunge. You know, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, all that. Yeah.
13:34
So, so I did. So these first three volumes that we launched with are kind of a murderer's row.
13:40
I did have a concern that maybe I was leading with the best stuff, that maybe I was, uh, shooting everything out into the world at once. And I'm happy to report, uh, being well into it now, that every year has its value.
13:55
You know, there's no slow years, uh, even though, uh, there might be to someone's individual consideration. Mm-hmm.
14:04
But, uh, you know, that kinda just brings up something I've been ruminating on, Paul, but there's been enough written about the '60s and '70s. These are kind of '80s and '90s nostalgia.
14:13
And my generation, I'm so tired that there's still people putting out their content about which was the best Beatles album. [laughs] You know? It's, yes, The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show was seismic.
14:27
Yes, The Beatles were the greatest band of all time. But I guarantee you, there's so many generations, there's kids- [laughs]... Metallica is more important to them than The Beatles. Yeah.
14:37
Dave Matthews Band is more important than The Beatles- See?... to these people. I wanna, I'm gonna personally thank you for doing that.
14:42
[laughs] Just because I have respect for The Beatles, but I didn't grow up on them, so yeah, I don't care to hear about The Beatles. [laughs] Yeah. I mean, I'm not gonna say that it's wrong. [laughs] No.
14:56
I think The Beatles were the greatest band of all time, but it's just selfish to just keep living there, you know, with all these aging out people, you know? Uh... [laughs] Yeah. You know, and the...
15:07
Of course, you know, but I have the three copies of the books, uh, here at the winery, and I've had them here, you know, for a month or so.
15:15
And just showing them to people as they come in, and they're tasting wine, and, and it's funny that the younger, you know, not, they're not even that young.
15:23
I, um, people in their late 30s would flip through the 1978 and, and just kinda go, "No. No, no." [laughs] Or they were bands that they'd never seen, never had an opportunity to. They may have picked out four or five.
15:38
But then when they flip to 1984, or even 1991, "Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah." [laughs] I mean, so exactly. Yeah. We all hear music differently, and the music that resonates is the music when we were roughly 18, right?
15:54
Yeah. I mean, when you had the time to, and the allowance- [laughs] Yeah... to support your record habit b- back in the day. It's great. You know- Who-... there is a... Uh, I'm sorry, Paul. No, that's okay. Go ahead.
16:05
It, it worth mentioning a flip side- Mm-hmm... to that, though. Um, I don't think it's an absolute, but, um, we won an award for the books, and I took it down to the framing shop in the neighborhood.
16:17
And a couple of 20-somethings were there, and I brought in a copy of the book so they would get an idea of what they were dealing with. And they were over the moon. The exact opposite of what you're saying. "No, no."
16:28
You know, they were like, "Wow, wow." [laughs] Yeah. And, and I wasn't sure why. And so when I asked them about it, they just said, "Oh man, this, this is when music was good. This is what our parents played for us.
16:40
Music today sucks." You know- [laughs]... the, this whole thing. Again, that's not an absolute, but it does exist, you know? Yeah. Um, which is kinda great to, uh, younger folks who are in, as Stephen Colbert would say.
16:53
[laughs] The youth, uh, there are some of them that do care about, uh, music and, and legacy. Because music is a fabric, right? There's no stopping and starting points.
17:04
It all just kinda weaves as far as influences- It does... and brings us to, to different places. So it's fun to tap into that. I think music is one of the last things that unites us all.
17:16
We're so divisive on every other level. But, uh, most people have a, a place in their heart, to varying degrees, for music. And wine. Don't forget. And wine, yes. [laughs] It bring, brings people together.
17:28
In fact, [laughs] I mean, out here at the winery, the live music events we've, we've hosted over the years, and I, I see, just to echo what you said, I, it's like the people that come in, and it doesn't matter who you voted for, and it just brings everyone together.
17:43
It's fun to see, and then to talk about that. I, there's people that come in here that I, I know and, um, [laughs] how do I want to put it?
17:53
They're well aware of the neighborhood they're coming into, and the, and the majority of the people's political view that come in, but everybody gets along.
18:02
They're just, uh, they're amazed at how everybody just gets along, so. Yeah. Yeah. And as it should be. Ab- absolutely.
18:09
[outro music]So going back to your, you know, what we [laughs] were just saying about generational music, I was looking at the Red Rocks, you know, that just got released of what's coming next year in 2023, and I was looking over those bands and I went, "Wow, I don't know that band.
18:34
I don't..." I didn't know any of them. [laughs] So. It just gets better, Paul. [laughs] I'll tell you that. Uh, it's interesting, I, I am kind of by default the Red Rocks historian.
18:48
The city doesn't have one, uh, an archivist, and I've, uh, done a book about Red Rocks that actually will be coming out in a upgraded, updated edition- Oh, nice...
18:59
uh, in the spring with volume four of On Record, and it's great.
19:03
This is a book that deserves to be in print, and it also provides a nice denouement, if you will, to have the pandemic years when they were just streaming out of there- Yeah...
19:13
and now the comeback from that, where they're doing more shows up there than ever before. Just won an award from Billboard Magazine, the most used venue in the world. Oh, really?
19:25
They did, like, 230-odd ticketed events- Yeah... uh, in 2021, and will probably break that [laughs] this year, you know? Uh, uh, it's just an amazing legacy.
19:37
It's now world-renowned, not just our little favorite outdoor venue up in the foothills of Morrison. True. It is world-renowned, and what... Is there a particular show?
19:47
I mean, I have one in mind that I think kinda made it world-renowned, but is there... What, which one is it for you? It's U2. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely.
19:53
No, there's no doubt about it, and it's great to have that chronicled in great detail in, in the book. The band had played the aforementioned Rainbow Music Hall a couple of times- Yeah...
20:04
uh, in, uh, 1980 and '81, and when they were in town they were taken up to Red Rocks, and they got it, said, "We're gonna play here someday."
20:13
Uh, June 5th, 1983, they put, uh, every nickel they had into filming the performance there, and it turned out to be a night that you wouldn't put the proverbial dog out in, right? Right, right.
20:27
Just misty rain, cold, just no place to be having an outdoor concert. And to those guys' credit, the voluble Bono, uh, got on the phone and called every radio station, uh, uh, in, in town, asking kids to come out.
20:45
He, they vowed to do a free show the following night indoors, but they need people to fill the seats, you know, 'cause they were filming this thing. And they turned it into an advantage, you know?
20:57
It looked like a Scottish moor with all the fog, and they had- It did. [laughs]... bonfires on the rocks. And The Edge always had the comment.
21:04
Uh, he, he said, "I, I thank the guy who invented the, the wide-angle lens," the, or the fisheye lens, 'cause it made the, the 5,000 kids who showed up look like 10,000. Yeah. Doubled that.
21:16
And, you know, they put on the performance of a lifetime, the iconic image of Bono waving the white flag during Sunday, Bloody Sunday, and that was in the nascent days of MTV. And that got shown
21:30
internationally, so it not only introduced the world to U2, it introduced them to Red Rocks, so that was a nice symbiosis. Very nice. It's interesting to me, Paul.
21:40
I, uh, I certainly celebrate the more generous use of, of Red Rocks. I mean, it should be av- available to everyone to see and ex- experience a show there, but I miss those days of when it was a career benchmark.
21:56
Playing Red Rocks was like playing Madison Square Garden in New York. I mean, that was the apex of a band's career. You worked to get there. Mm-hmm.
22:03
And these days, to your point, seeing the schedule where it's tribute bands and EDM, it's just letting people use the park who can pay the rent, as opposed to a career benchmark, as I say.
22:20
And I don't want that to sound like sour grapes, but I'm just very grateful and nostalgic for those, those days when they were only doing 50 shows a summer up there. That was headline news, right? That was.
22:32
"50 shows at Red Rocks," instead of 230, but all 50 of them were people who had, you know... I, it still means a ton to the artist. There's nothing like standing on that stage. It does.
22:44
In fact, Tower of Power played this past summer, and it was their first time performing at Red Rocks, [laughs] so. Yeah. I'd put an asterisk next to that.
22:53
[laughs] 'Cause The Horns, which is their main feature- Oh, right... they, they toured with Huey Lewis and the News back in the '80s. [laughs] So, uh, those guys got to be on that stage. Heck, I got to be on that stage.
23:04
Back in high school we used to go up there [laughs] and pound on the soundboards during the day, you know, to, to Santana's Soul Sacrifice. [laughs] Just to say that we were playing Red Rocks. Oh, that's cool.
23:18
Okay, so some of the interviews, I mean, all, you, you got books full of inter- interviews, but who, who are some of the most memorable artists?
23:26
Uh, that's, yeah, that's- Any, or anybody- Hu- a hugely unfair question, Paul. Yeah. But no, I'll, uh- How about who, who were... Or who rubbed you... The next question is who rubbed you the wrong way?
23:35
[laughs] Well, uh, I'll answer both. The- Okay... uh, starting with the latter, um, it hearkens back to the idea of interviewing someone, you know?
23:45
Everyone always wants to know who's the worst interview, who was the jerk. Mm-hmm. I never had that experience. I- Yeah...
23:51
I don't want that to sound coy, but it's just, um, if you do your homework and, and be professional, most people like to talk about themselves.
24:01
The most memorable, hard to pick just one, but one I was fiercely proud of was Marilyn Manson. Post-Columbine, uh, he was going to come through town and there were protests, picketing. Yeah.
24:15
One gentleman in particular was trying to make a big deal out of, uh, him being the, the cause of the killer's motivation. Right. The, the usual devil's music stuff. Yeah.
24:25
And I put it out there that instead of coming to town and doing a sound bite for the evening news and trying to state his position and 30 seconds, that he should do a sit-down interview and, and lay it out.
24:39
You know, do something a little more extensive. And they bought it. I went out to Los Angeles. He had a home in the Hollywood Hills, actually where The Rolling Stones recorded Satisfaction [laughs] back in, uh, 1965.
24:53
Wow. And, uh, it was quite the scene. He had his contact lenses in for me, and the, the colored ones, right, that make him look like- Okay...
25:03
the walking dead or whatever, and his, uh, clothing with the Frankenstein stitching. You know? Yeah. He, he was in his stage gear for, to sit in his parlor. Had what was ostensibly a human skull.
25:14
You know, "This is, this is illegal, but I have..." You know? [laughs] It was pretty funny. But he was so well-versed in First Amendment rights.
25:25
Dennis Miller had an old joke, "I liked him better when he was Alice Cooper," right? [laughs] That was kinda my attitude going in- Yeah... musically. But I gotta give the guy credit, you know? He, uh, uh, very bright.
25:37
Like, even the most ostensibly dopey rock stars are, they're all really smart on some level, or they wouldn't be in that position- That's true...
25:47
to drive some people crazy and ma- [laughs] and make others go bananas, you know? Yeah.
25:50
And some, yeah, some artists like that where I, I think they're writing lyrics, and so yeah, they have some deep beliefs and, and fr- and like you said, First Amendment rights. Some sort of vision, ev- Yeah...
26:02
even if it's not everyone's cup of tea. But, uh- Yeah... that was just instructive to me. At that late stage, I was guilty of being slightly judgmental going into it, which I, I shouldn't have been. He was really smart.
26:14
Yeah, he, he was an artist that I never really got into. Wasn't my thing, uh, at that time. But then, uh, it was great learning about him post-Columbine, knowing that the, the music wasn't the...
26:29
I mean, the music is not the cause. [laughs] Yeah. Well, and he was... [laughs] Yeah, that was a long-running debate. He just happened to be caught in the crossfire. Right.
26:42
No pun intended, but just the idea that music is the c- the motivation or the cause of this, uh, that went back to the Eisenhower era. Probably to my inspiration. Can we close with a little anecdote? Yes.
26:56
[laughs] I mean, it, it was circling back to that. Little Richard- Okay. Okay... who was the same guy, uh, to a degree 40 years earlier, uh, in that, you know, late '50s. Richard ticked all the boxes, right?
27:13
[laughs] Gay, Black, flamboyant.
27:16
You know, I mean, I've said you could take Marilyn Manson and Alice Cooper and any other shock rocker, put them all together, and they still don't match up to what Richard was doing and facing, uh, at that juncture in rock history.
27:29
He was something. Yeah. So Little Gary Brown, there you go. [laughs] To, to bringing it full circle, Paul. All right. [laughs] Little Gary Brown in Arvada on Sunday nights at the Brown household.
27:42
Saturday was hamburger night, and Sunday was steak night. You know, steak, what Mom could, uh- Yeah... come up with. And, uh [laughs] you know, Bonanza, Wonderful World of Disney on the tube, and The Ed Sullivan Show.
27:55
And Little R- I'm five or six, Little Richard comes on and does Lucille, which is one of his squealers, right? "Lucille!" You know, just- Yeah... crazy.
28:07
My old man wasn't, for all his faults, he wasn't demonstrative around us kids with language. I never heard a, a damn, much less an F-bomb. That was probably Mom's doing, right? Just- Yeah... laying down that law.
28:21
He was a man's man, un- undoubtedly around the fellas. But, uh, it made it all the more surprising when we're watching Little Richard, and he sets down his TV tray and says, "Get that screaming
28:34
N-word off the television." I didn't know rock and roll from a hole in the ground, but I just, uh, the light bulb went off. I don't know what got such a rise out of the old man, but this bears further investigation.
28:47
[laughs] I need this arrow in my quiver, right? If he'd have kept his mouth shut, I'd have probably been an accountant- [laughs] Right... or something, right?
28:54
[laughs] But he didn't, and, uh, that always kind of instructed me. [laughs] That's what does it. That's right. We had our battles of the, in future years. You know, he was pretty militant about that stuff.
29:09
You know, if your hair touched your ears, you were a commie, hippie, pinko- [laughs]... whatever, you know? So that was, uh, that was its own level of hysterical behavior. All right, do you still go to, uh, live shows?
29:23
Not so much. No? Uh, I'm not gonna sandbag anyone. I put in my time, [laughs] you know? My joy comes from listening, uh, at home.
29:33
My buddies at Listen Up, I did some trade with them, wrote something for their catalog, and they set me up with these incredible Focal speakers made in France. And to listen to the music that I love, right?
29:45
Uh, I spent my whole life chasing the next thing, reporting on it, and now just to go back and spend time with my favorite music and hearing the sonic detail and the craft of record-making and stuff, ooh, I get gooseflesh just thinking.
30:01
I'm gonna go do it right now. Nice. [laughs] Well, all right. Thanks, G, for coming down. Anytime. I hope we do it again. Yeah, for sure. Hopefully. We, we're definitely gonna do it again.
30:13
We're gonna drink wine next time. Oh, yeah. [laughs] We, we did. We forgot about that today, but, uh, [laughs] we'll, we'll drink some wine next time, and yeah, we'll get your opinion on wine, so.
30:24
Well, thank you for all you do for the music community. No, thank you. It's a, a great, great intersection.
30:29
You do, you do so much for the music community, so, uh, I encourage everyone to check out the Colorado Music Experience and just, just see the archive of music history. Yeah. If I may, uh, colomusic.org.
30:45
C-O-L-O-music.org is our site, and, uh, I hope you go down the rabbit hole. There's, uh, some fun stuff there. For sure. Yeah, next time we could just talk about the Rainbow Music Hall. [laughs] Okay.
30:56
[upbeat music] That's our show for this week. Thank you so much for listening to Denver Wine Radio. Your homework for the week is to go out and taste some Colorado wine.
31:09
If you have any questions or comments, or just wanna let us know what you're drinking, go to denverwineradio.com, where you can email us or leave us a voice message. We'd love to hear from you.
31:20
And remember, put some altitude in your glass.
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