Paul Taylor (Winger)

Paul Taylor is the keyboardist, guitarist and background vocalist for Winger.  He has worked with a number of other artists as well including Aldo Nova, Alice Cooper and Steve Perry.  He co-wrote the new Skid Row single "The Gang's All Here" and will be also featured on the upcoming Mick Mars solo record.  We discuss his entire career including his film/tv compositions and delve in to a variety of topics.  

00:00 - Intro
00:56 - Co-Writing New Skid Row Song 
04:47 - Working with Mick Mars 
06:20 - Paul Taylor Solo Record 
08:40 - New Winger Album 
10:37 - Living in Nashville 
11:34 - Jeff LeBar from Cinderella 
13:30 - Surviving the Music Business 
16:25 - Working with Aldo Nova 
18:46 - Producing for Vain 
21:05 - Alice Cooper, Slash & Axl 
22:25 - Winger 
25:38 - Tour with Kiss 
26:47 - Working with Steve Perry 
29:40 - Learning to Record & TV/Movie Songs 
35:08 - Sabrina the Teenage Witch Theme Song 
37:44 - Metallica & Winger Feud 
39:05 - Look and Sound of Winger 
42:45 - Wanting to Work with Pink 
45:00 - Quiet Riot & Tribute Bands 
46:31 - Jon Bon Jovi & Singers 
48:30 - Solo Project & Eric Martin 
54:50 - St. Jude's Children's Hospital  
56:50 - Outro 

Winger website:
https://www.wingertheband.com

St. Jude's Hospital website:
https://www.stjude.org

Chuck Shute website:
http://chuckshute.com

Transcript

Chuck Shute: 0:00

Hey, stay right there because I got Paul Taylor from winger coming up and we're going to chat about his whole career from starting out with alto Nova to Alice Cooper to winger to the TV and film work that he's done making music for that, to co writing the new skid row song. Music with Mick Mars on MCs, new solo record. Lots of great stories and insight from Paul Taylor, one of the best in the business coming right up. Oh, and a special shout out to Stevie Rochelle from tough for this awesome t shirt. If you can see it. It's very cool. If you're watching this on YouTube, make sure to follow us do your shell and metal sludge and tough on social media. Stay right there. Okay, please welcome Paul Taylor, the show host.

Paul Taylor: 0:53

Chuck. Thanks for having me.

Chuck Shute: 0:54

Yeah, it's exciting. So right off the bat, I got to ask you about the new skid row song because I love that song. The gang's all here. Now, you co wrote this with Rachel and snake.

Paul Taylor: 1:04

I did. Yeah. We, you know, Rachel had asked me like, play with it. You know, we were just talking the other day. It seems like it was yesterday, we did it. But it was actually in 2018. He said, hey, you know, we might need a couple other tracks for the record, you know, do you want to get together and try and bang something out? And we had noodled on a couple other songs. And so I said, Yeah, sure. So we got together and just cranked it out. And you know, got as far as we could, and then snake was coming to town. So he came to my house the following. I think it was the following day. And the three of us got together and kind of finished it up. And you know, then we made some mild changes later. But yeah, it was a lot of fun. Those guys are I love those guys. So

Chuck Shute: 1:45

what is your contribution? Because I mean, I know that song backwards. And for I don't know how many downloads it has on Spotify, but half of those are probably mine. Like, I've listened that so many times.

Paul Taylor: 1:55

Oh, man, I you know, like I had some riffs. We started with a riff, I think that I had and we just went from there. And, you know, we worked a little bit on that in my studio on the lyrics and stuff. And then of course, Rachel took it and made a meal out of it, you know, so, but it was a collaborative effort. And those guys, you know, they know how to write a song. So I just I felt blessed it just even be asked, and you know, but little did I ever think it was going to become you know, the first single and I don't even think they knew till way later in the game too. And, you know, so it was a lot of fun.

Chuck Shute: 2:29

I love it sounds like it was written in 1990 Like, right between their first and second albums. It sounds like it's right in the middle of it. I love it. I love the way it sounds.

Paul Taylor: 2:38

Yeah, that's what people are saying. It's great. You know, I the fun part of it for me is it's you know, good high energy song. And you know, you know, being a keyboard player, he's always asking me to write ballads and stuff. And so it was fun just to write some ribbon up tempo rock song. And then of course, you know, they've done a singer change. And Eric is somebody that I had seen on one of the cruises three years ago. And me and Kip were out on the pool deck. And he came on and we're like, man, who is this guy, you know? And Kipps like that kids a star man. So definitely things husband's off.

Chuck Shute: 3:13

Yeah, he sounds amazing. Like, I mean, they've had a few singers but this guy yeah, you're right. He's like a star. Like he really, I don't know if it was the new song and then direction with the new singer. I just everything about that new song is amazing. So I'm looking forward to more did you write any of the other songs?

Paul Taylor: 3:30

No, no, I did. They did have some other outside. Right. You know, like, I think Marty Frederickson wrote one and maybe Lizzie, you know, from Halestorm. So, wow. You know, those guys, they know how to write a song. I mean, you know, they can crank them out. So, anyway, but I will say I've heard some of the other stuff on the record, and it's really good man. It really does

Chuck Shute: 3:53

it all sound like that kind of era of like the 1990 kind of era, or is it kind of more eclectic?

Paul Taylor: 3:59

Okay, so I'll leave that to everybody that you know, determined but I just was like, wow, this is a really strong record, so

Chuck Shute: 4:07

I can't wait. Yeah, that was they were probably my one point they were like my number one favorite band in high school. I really liked them a lot and then it because I grew up in Seattle in the 90s so then it was like oh shit like we're losing all these like hard rock it was more of the grunge which I liked that too. But you know, I really liked the more high energy fun stuff like that. It was a lot of fun to listen to that.

Paul Taylor: 4:27

I know it's stuff I heard as rock and and of course, Nick did an incredible job producing and so

Chuck Shute: 4:33

Wait, Nick. What what's Linux? Oh, yeah, yeah, he's he works with like Foo Fighters and stuff, right?

Paul Taylor: 4:40

Velvet Revolver, all kinds of bands. He's he did a fantastic job.

Chuck Shute: 4:45

Yeah, and then now you're also you wrote with Mick Mars and Jacob button for Mick Mars solo record. Can you talk about that?

Paul Taylor: 4:53

Well, I can. I can say yes, I did. I can say as Nick would put it, yeah. That's really mean, it's awesome, man, we spent a couple of years just putting ideas together. And, you know, basically going off what Mick had created, like, the guy is just incredibly, you know, he comes up with the most unique stuff and gave us a lot to work with. And we all just kind of got together and put them into in kind of a chronological order, and, you know, slowly got a record happening. So, yeah, looking forward to, we're hoping to get that out at the end of the year. And it's very heavy, and it's really, really interesting. I think people will be really surprised.

Chuck Shute: 5:40

So are you like a fool? Are you playing every song? Or was it just a couple songs that you played with or CO wrote or

Paul Taylor: 5:46

all of them except one, he did an instrumental at the end. So you know, we wrote, you know, nine songs and put it all together. And I'm, I'm so excited about you know, it finally coming out at whatever point it does, you know, of course, that's in the hands of the label and all that now, so I'm just moving on to other stuff here. I got a lot of winter dates coming up. And, you know, I'm actually working on a maybe a record for just me, which I've never done before. So

Chuck Shute: 6:18

Oh, that would be fun.

Paul Taylor: 6:20

Yeah, it just, it'd be like Paul Taylor and friends. Because I'm not a great singer, I can sing backups. But I've got a bunch of leftover material for all, you know, things I tried to, you know, pitch the wing or, you know, any of these other projects. And so I just thought, Man, I'm just going to get some of these recorded up and have some different friends sing on them and see, you know, just just not to have it go anywhere become something amazing, but just didn't do it just for me, you know,

Chuck Shute: 6:49

huh? No, that sounds that sounds awesome. Would you? Can you say who the friends would be? I mean, I could probably guess because, I mean, you have a lot of friends.

Paul Taylor: 6:58

Well, any of those incredible singers I've been lucky enough to work with, you know, I don't have any specific guys in mind for the specific songs I've got yet. But as I finish him and kind of go, Okay, I'm here. And so and so sitting on him on you know, I'll give him a call and see if I can get him to help me out.

Chuck Shute: 7:15

Okay, yeah, my only advice to you would be shoot for the moon baby and ask for those, like people that you think are gonna say no, ask anyways? Because you never know. They might say yes,

Paul Taylor: 7:24

they might. They might not I get it. If they say no, I understand. Yeah, a lot of stuff going on. And you know, so it's just like I say, it's just like, creative, fun thing that I probably should have done it a long time ago, you know, I've gotten some of the stuff leftover. And I used to write a ton of stuff for TV as well, right? Oh, I've just like, you know, and then there's all these just pieces of things I never finished. And so it's just kind of a good excuse to get some of those done and out there as well.

Chuck Shute: 7:54

So would that be like a total? And that's got to be totally a eclectic fan, right? I mean, it's everything from your career.

Paul Taylor: 8:01

Yeah, it's all over the map. I mean, you know, not that I'm going to release some of this, you know, I had to write tons of pop stuff for TV and you know, r&b and blues and Motown stuff. And, you know, that stuff's in catalogs. And you know, it's on TV all the time. But right. Now, this mostly just kind of, you know, it's definitely in the rock genre, but, you know, changing styles from anywhere from very, very heavy stuff, all the way to kind of almost journey ish, you know, since, you know, I used to work with Steve Perry and all that. So I was writing a lot of ideas, kind of, you know, in that vein for the three years, I worked with Steve, so

Chuck Shute: 8:38

awesome. And then you said the new winger, I think it's the seventh album is it's already written? And is it mostly done? It's just we're just waiting for date on that.

Paul Taylor: 8:47

Yeah, it's done. And we, I think Kipps just mixing it at this point. You know, everybody did their parts quite a while ago. But of course, you know, our band. We're scattered all over the US. So with us, it's kind of not as simple getting stuff together. Sometimes. You know, like, when we do a show, and we switch the setup. It's like, oh, gosh, well, everybody do your homework, because we're not going to be rehearsing, you know. But it was fun this week, this year, right before we did the cruise, the Monsters of Rock cruise, we got together and did a two day rehearsal, where we were finally able to work on some new stuff that we hadn't done. And we we put together a medley of all the bands that are well, not all the bands, but some of the bands that we'd all played in. That was a blast. And we we did it and then we thought at the end of the day, rehearse and we're like, is this gonna go over? Are people gonna think it's dumb? And we said, well, let's just do it the first night on the cruise, and if it goes over, you know, we'll do it again on the second night. And we were just blown. I mean, that was probably the best response to anything we've ever gotten. And so we did it both nights and now, whenever we have John Roth playing with us, we'll we'll do it. We'll probably do it because John's singing Newton, you know, a number are the songs. So oh, he's got a lot of dates for the starship. And we've got ribs out with Whitesnake. And so what this year is a lot of maneuvering. So

Chuck Shute: 10:10

yeah, and yeah, now would you tour with Mick Mars and the solo stuff? Or would he? I mean, I guess he's got that stadium tour. So who knows?

Paul Taylor: 10:17

Yeah, that'll be up to Nick. And that would be off in the future. And I haven't heard anything to that. You know, I know he's got a lot to do with Motley. So,

Chuck Shute: 10:25

does he live in Nashville? Because I know you're in Nashville, right? Yes. Okay. So maybe at least you could do a local show or something. That would be fun. I would

Paul Taylor: 10:33

love it. That would be up to him. And, you know,

Chuck Shute: 10:37

do you see guys like that, like, you must see those people all the time in Nashville, like, just run into him at clubs. And

Paul Taylor: 10:44

you do you know, I you know, there is a small town and you know, not not all Mike to get out. But I mean, there's a few guys that like to get out and you know, like, nicely Vince Gill in town a lot. He loves to go eat breakfast like I do. And, you know, just you'll spot a few of them out. I've seen Reba quite a bit. You know, it's mostly the country people of course. As you know, like, there's a ton of 80s rock guys here now. So yeah, yeah, ton of them.

Chuck Shute: 11:10

Rachel from Skid Row is there.

Paul Taylor: 11:13

No nails, pins, and, you know, hailstorm and a million a day. Dave Mustaine was here for a while. Right? Yeah. Right. Michaels was here for a while. And yes. Mark slaughter.

Chuck Shute: 11:28

Yeah. And now didn't you live next to Jeff Lebar. From Cinderella wasn't he like your neighbor?

Paul Taylor: 11:33

You he lived across the street from me? i We didn't and I mean, we that was about 15 minutes out of town. And I'm one day I'm out scraping ice off my windshield and it's carpool. Somebody's like, what are you doing here? And I'm like, looking at Jeff. And I'm like, Oh my god. He's like, Dude, I live in that house. And so it's just crazy.

Chuck Shute: 11:52

Yeah, so it's so sad that he passed away. Do you have any other memories or stories of him? Did you guys hang out a lot?

Paul Taylor: 12:00

You know, of course, in the past, you know, over the years Winger had done a lot of shows with Cinderella, including the one big one where we kind of got the band back together with poison and Cinderella and us and faster pussycat, we, that was in Oh, two, we went out. And that's kind of when we rebranded the band, you know, and, but, you know, so I would say hi, and stuff more in those days. But, of course, I went on to go play in Oh, 12. I did play keyboards for two months with those guys. And that's where I got to spend more time and Jeff just a great guy and miss him a lot. And very thankful that was, you know, a couple months before he passed away, I was at a barbecue just a small barbecue at a studio and he was there. And Eric was there and the three of us hung out. And you know, you just never know i Little would I think if that barbecue, that would be the last time I'd see him. So but yeah, good guy, and so talented. And you know what a great stage presence and great guitar player and, you know, he's got a son Sebastian, that boy, he's like a little spitting image of Jeff and also equally just an amazing little guitar player. So

Chuck Shute: 13:14

Oh, yeah, I was supposed to, I think somebody had mentioned, maybe I should have him on my show. I probably should reach out.

Paul Taylor: 13:21

It's great little guitar player and super good kid. And, you know, he's out there doing it, you know, carrying on the torch.

Chuck Shute: 13:28

It's gotta be hard. As a younger musician. Like, what advice would you give to younger musicians? Because the industry has changed so much since when you started?

Paul Taylor: 13:38

Man? I know. I you know, honestly, I don't know. I pondered all the time, because it's changing faster than I can keep up with. And it's, it's just hard to tell. I mean, I don't think anybody knows, you know, we just all hanging on for dear life and grateful that we still have the shows coming in. And yeah, you know, God, we've had so many little bumps in the road the last couple years, of course, with COVID. I mean, that wiped out, you know, two years of shows for us and, and then he wants we got going and they would randomly get canceled because somebody, you know, even if we were healthy, you know, somebody at the venue would get sick or so. But yeah, and just the way you make money or you know, the whole streaming thing, or donate money more like but, you know, it's a tough business these days.

Chuck Shute: 14:29

Man, it was like, back in the day, it was like, You got a record label or record deal. And that was like, Okay, you did it. But even then, it wasn't for sure. But now it's like, you don't even need a record label. But then it's like, what, how do you get to the top? You know, it's like, I don't seem so competitive. I mean, it's competitive back in the day now. It's even more competitive.

Paul Taylor: 14:47

I can't even imagine being a young band trying to stand out in the crowd. I mean, like you say, I mean, there's just bands everywhere and you know, anytime you're on the internet or On TV, all the TV, you know, there's just talent everywhere. So I think people have become really numb, you know, you find a new amazing guitar player or an incredible new singer. And everyone's like, Oh, that's nice. I've heard 10 great singers on this or that show, you know, so, I don't know, you just keep going. And you know, just whatever, I just kind of look for whatever kind of comes into my immediate area. And I go, Oh, man, they're cool. And I know them now. And I'd love to work with them, you know. And for me, like, writing has always been kind of the thing that I just loved the most. You know, if I had to stop touring tomorrow, that wouldn't hurt me as much as if someone said, Well, you get to tour but you can't write, you know, that's native outlet. I just love putting stuff together in the studio. And

Chuck Shute: 15:48

do you get approached a lot by younger up and coming bands to write or play on their albums are things that

Paul Taylor: 15:55

I do, and I've kind of not been doing it over the last year, especially a lot of them have been from overseas. I just, you know, just for the same reason, I don't even do zoom rights or anything. I just, I like to just be in the room and just have that immediate interaction when I'm writing. So you know, and I guess, I don't know, some people, it's easy for them to do that. But I just, I like to have people there. So

Chuck Shute: 16:23

yeah, well, so when you started out, I mean, your I guess your big break would have been the elbow, elbow Nova thing. And you audition for him? How many people do you remember? Or do you even know how many people you beat out to get that job?

Paul Taylor: 16:37

None. Really, what happened was he came to the Bay Area, which and I don't remember why he was in San Francisco looking for the band. He might have known one of the guys because we had Kevin Carlson and Billy kamasi Danny's little brother was the drummer, okay. You'd come to town, I'd actually met him at a party. And he was around for like a week. And I'm like, Oh, hell no. And he had this, you know, tape under his. And he's like, this is my record. And, you know, we were all like, we didn't know whether he was telling the truth or not. But of course, you know, he was and so he put a band together. And he had a keyboard player, but I guess within the week had decided he just didn't care for him. And so he remembered meeting me and the other guys all knew me. And so they said, Yeah, we get a hold of him. So they did and I just went down and played a few songs. And he's like, okay, you know, you're at which at the time I didn't know what I was getting into, you know, but boy, first thing they did was send us to LA to shoot the fantasy video and also video of ball and chain. And we didn't even know what a video was. It was so crazy. Because that was at one lady. And MTV came out, I think, an ad to and they said, Oh, it's this thing that you know, they make Google videos to play in between Showtime movies, and we're like, oh, okay, so we got down there and like, what do we do? And they're like, just act like you plan and you know, but boy, you know, the record came out and that single, you know, fantasy just shut up the charts. And we went out initially with Holland notes for that was our gonna be our first tour. We got out for about a week and a half. And then Billy came down with chickenpox. So we got quarantined off the tour. And by the time he got, well, the record was just, you know, going through the roof. And so we ended up taking off with the oyster cold for two months. And then we played the Pasadena Rose Bowl sold out with Blue Oyster Cult triumphant journey, and I just, I mean, I couldn't even believe it. And I'd never played anything bigger than a club and all said, I'm playing for 75,000 people, you know,

Chuck Shute: 18:38

that's amazing. And that, that really, that kind of led to Alice Cooper. But wasn't it the story that like you would produce the demo for vain. And then they that's how they found you or so that kind of helped.

Paul Taylor: 18:49

Is you've done your homework? Yeah, I mean, Davey grew up together, Davey vane and would always sit in coffee shops down in cutting Towne mall in Santa Rosa and look for girls and you know, like, you know, thing young guys do, I guess, and, but we would always hang out and funny enough, Dave used to come and see, we had a band called stark raving mad, and Dave used all of us and all that. And one day he bought our guitar player Donovan's guitar, a Les Paul, but he didn't play or sing or anything. And it was it had to be like, less than a year later, he calls me one day, he goes, Hey, did come see my band play and Uncle Charlie's, I'm like, your band, like when When did you do you know, I didn't even know he had tried to learn how to play guitar and definitely not be a lead singer. And I went down and, you know, I remember just going well, this possibly couldn't be very good, you know, and he's only been doing this a small amount of time and I walked out. They played and of course, they had all the hair. And you know, and Davey was just like, I've never seen more confidence coming off a stage like I was like, man, he is a star you know, like he He just was just amazing. I was shocked. I remember hanging out going, Okay, I wouldn't call that one. But yeah, so we we, you know, we would mess around music a little bit, but cat XORed offski, who we all grew up with as well, who went on to become a big, you know, manager for a lot of people. She had taken this little demo that they had asked me to help them with and I, and I wasn't a producer or anything, but I just said, Look, I'll help you guys as good as I can. And we did some songs together. And I think I even played a solo on one of the songs and Kat took that tape and she's a total go get her and she said, all over the place. And a girl in New York saw my name on there and recognize it from the Alto days and was like, and she was trying to find members for the Alice Cooper band. So yeah, she's like, Hey, are you the guy that played without Aldo? And I said, Yeah, and she's like, man, we desperately need a guy that can play guitar and keys equally well and sing backups for Alice. Are you interested? And I was like, Oh my God. Yeah. So that's awesome. That was that, you know,

Chuck Shute: 21:05

and so did you record I thought I heard you say that you recorded under my wheels with Axel and was slashed on that one, too? No, just X Factor. Okay. But that must have been, Were you there when Axel was there in the studio?

Paul Taylor: 21:18

You know, I don't think I was that all came down right. In the final weeks before I left Alice to go with winger and I remember it was causing me some flight. I had to live in London in New York to kind of because I was just transitioning, you know, me and Kip Kip had left first. And we told her you know, we wrote some songs that whole first year and we got a deal on Atlantic and Alice was like, that's great, man. Go do it. So I had told ALICE I would play that we had some European dates. And I had to finish those out. And I think they recorded all that stuff with Axl before I got back. I mean, it's so long ago. I can't even remember, but it was fun. But we did do some stuff with slash we slash came down and Rob Zombie. When we played when we recorded the live record down in Cabo with Alice. Oh, that sounds fun. was really fun. Yeah. And you know, we did it a cabo Wabo Sammy was real nice and gave us the club for two weeks and, and he got up and jammed with us. And it was a blast. It was a amazing two weeks.

Chuck Shute: 22:20

That sounds awesome. Yeah. So yeah. So you leave Alice Cooper and you you guys go off and do Winger? You only did two of the album's you didn't do the third one. Right with pole.

Paul Taylor: 22:30

Right. Right. Then we, me and Kip had been literally in each other's face for six straight years, like, you know, inseparable. And I think, you know, you've got to take a break from, you know, it was just like, we'd look at each other. We weren't fighting, but I think we were both just like, Oh, my God, you again, you know, so I left, I was kind of getting tired of the road at the time. And I left in joined up with Steve Perry. Right. And, and it was the timing was kind of interesting, because it was only about I think, five months later that, you know, I met Kip and Rob, at Jerry's Deli in LA. And they told me, hey, guess what, we're calling it a day for a while because, you know, things were just, this was like, gosh, I don't even remember what years but you know, the shows the ad thing had started kind of dying down. And, you know, so

Chuck Shute: 23:22

yeah, it was like, perfect. You always had, like, it seemed like you always were able to like, kind of jump ship and then like, move on to the next thing. Just like perfect timing.

Paul Taylor: 23:30

Yeah. And I have been really lucky. I mean, you know, I have some talent too. But, you know, timing. I mean, I've been really lucky. You know, it's been quite a run, you know, it's funny now getting older and kind of going, God, you know, can't believe I'm still doing it and fallen into things and, you know, scrape it so it's,

Chuck Shute: 23:53

that's really cool. I love I love the first three. I mean, I love all the winger albums really, but those first three especially, but that's it the second one that had in the heart of the young, right, because so I didn't know the story like the album was done. And then this was like a Warren cherry pie thing where they're like, Hey, where's the rock songs? Where's the hits? So he had to go back in and write was it can't get enough and easy come easy go

Paul Taylor: 24:14

after the record had been finished and handed in? And the label was like, What is this? Yeah, they thought it was way too progressive, which now are the history of all of our records, you know, things like tin soldier or rainbow in the rows, we've got some pretty prog songs, you know, but and that's, you know, Kipps brilliant mind. I mean, the guy is, you know, the body of work that guy has written since I've known him and the whole thing with you know, I mean, he's got the San Francisco Ballet performing one of his things and you know, Nashville Symphony just performed. He wrote a symphony for them two years ago. That's unbelievably good. And all the stuff written in, you know, done for the winger stuff is just mind boggling, you know?

Chuck Shute: 25:00

Yeah, so the song I love the song can't get enough the way he sings. Like, it's understood. Did he? Did he come up with that? Was that on the demo? Or is that something Bowhill came up with after in production? Or do you even know? I don't know if you know.

Paul Taylor: 25:15

Yeah, cuz I have the demos and stuff. No Kip Kip gets them the way he wants them. And then you know, Bose part in it would have just been purely, you know, I mean, he came up with ideas as well, but, you know, mostly kind of the engineering part of it. I mean, Kip is he knows the way he wants stuff to sound, you know?

Chuck Shute: 25:34

Yeah. No, no, you guys after that second album, is that when you toured with kiss?

Paul Taylor: 25:41

Oh, boy. My time,

Chuck Shute: 25:43

or do you did tour with kiss? Oh, the winger right or no? Yeah, no. Okay.

Paul Taylor: 25:47

Shade, you know, it was right before Eric passed away, which just blew us all away as well. I mean, what a nice guy and so sad. But yeah, we did. It was us slaughter and kiss on that tour. And I can't remember how long we were out. I think about a month.

Chuck Shute: 26:05

Okay. But do you have any memories of that? Like, everyone's got a good Gene Simmons stories? Or do you have a Gene Simmons stories? You have interactions with him? Or?

Paul Taylor: 26:14

Oh, yeah, no, no, I couldn't really remember. But gene. I mean, what a personality. I mean, the guy is bigger than life. And you know, it's funny, not, you know, my buddies, Ryan, and all the guys that are playing, we're playing with him on his solo thing. And now we're out with ace freely. So I got to hang out a couple of solo shows. And, you know, it was fun, that C gene not being in Kiss, you know, it kind of loosens up a little bit more when He was hanging with the guys in his own thing. And that was fun to go see.

Chuck Shute: 26:43

Now that's really cool. So, I mean, you, like I said, we talked about you joined by Steve Perry, and you and you actually corrode You better wait, which was the top 40 single and 94, which was hard to do if you weren't doing alternative or grunge in the 90s to write a rock song there was a hit. That's a pretty big accomplishment there.

Paul Taylor: 27:01

Yeah, I mean, you know, but I think Steve had been gone so long. I think people were just really anxious to hear his voice again, you know. And we worked a long time on that record. We and we wrote it live. We wrote it jamming in a studio at third encore in Los Angeles in Studio B. And you know, we would see bands come in and they'd rehearse and then they'd go out on tour and come back and they're like, Oh, you guys are back to on. We're like, No, we never left. Because we were just working on these songs for a long time. But, you know, that was a fun project. And you know, what an amazing band with boys Lucas Jr. on drums. To me one of the most underrated drummers on the planet. We found him way late in the game after auditioning every best drummer on the planet. And then we had little Lincoln Brewster, who at the time looked like he was 10. But I think he was 19 when we put the band together, just a tasteful phenomenal guitar player. And Lincoln's gone on to have a an amazing career and that Christian artists, you know, thing and real, great sounding records he's putting out and then Todd Jensen, our bass player is now actually playing with Germany, and I will see him tomorrow night. So yeah, it was. Yeah, that was kind of ironic that he got that gig. But he had also played well, he also played with me and Alice Cooper, and he had also played with Neil in hard line. So I guess it was, you know, any, you know, him and Dean are very good friends. So I guess it was a natural fit that he would get that gig as you know, the fact that he toured was Steve playing all the journey songs and all that.

Chuck Shute: 28:46

Yeah, I liked journey. I don't know. I don't even know if you know, or if maybe this is a dumb question. But what is this the history with Steve Perry and journey? Why did they I don't even know why they broke up, or if there's bad blood, or I know, they got that new singer. And he's amazing, but I'm just like, trying to figure out like, what happened there? Like, why did they?

Paul Taylor: 29:03

I think Steve just had gotten tired. You know, and I mean, you know, man, they put in a lot of years, and I get it, there's times where I just like, you know, at the end of the six years with Kip with, you know, Allison into winger, and I was just starting to fall apart. And it's like, God, I want to take a break for a while and just be in a studio and write and, you know, the road can really be grueling. So I think it was just he needed to stop for a while, you know, and just recharge the batteries. And yeah,

Chuck Shute: 29:35

so when you like things slowed down in the 90s. And maybe people aren't calling you as much to tour like, what is that like as a musician? Do you have to just kind of sit back and wait and hope people call or do you call around and kind of ask and put the feelers out there.

Paul Taylor: 29:49

Okay, so in the 90s, honestly, other than the Steve project when that kept me going for three years, thankfully, but honestly, I mean, for me You know, it didn't work very well. I mean, it was the first time in my life that all of a sudden, I didn't have something and then months went by, and I still didn't know and then a year, and then I started panicking. And I, you know, I got them bummed me out, I got depressed for a while and kind of was like and got snippy with people. You know, I don't know, man, I, it was the one time in my life, I think I almost started kind of falling apart, you know? And, you know, but I, I just thought it every day, I was like, Okay, I need to figure something out here. And I didn't know how to record and I thought, Okay, well, I'm gonna go for it and buy stuff for the studio. And, you know, computers were just starting to become the thing. And computers were the last thing in the world I ever wanted to be dealing with. That's why I was a musician. But I realized at that point, that's the direction it was heading. And so I got stuff, and I took a year. And I sucked for a long time at it because I was add and couldn't sit in a room for longer than 10 minutes. But slowly, I started doing it. And I was I got to thing where I got to write a couple of blues things for a TV deal through Mark Ferrari. And Mark wrote a song and it placed, and then it placed again, and he's like, man, let's write some more. And we started doing it. But my recording was average at best. And, but I just kept at it. And like it about it, it was about 2000, where all of a sudden, I got asked to do a series of songs, and I did them. And I was I remember thinking, Okay, I'm getting this, and I was spending longer and longer hours just editing and making stuff sound good. And so then I just took off writing tons of stuff for TV and film, along with Mark and a couple other guys. And I've continued to do that on the side, you know, all these years, I think I have over 300 songs that I've written just for TV, and I bums me out because I don't have the publishing on him. So I can't even really play him or put them on, you know, every time I do you know, because their own way, either Warner Chappell or universal. And I'm not really allowed to do what I want or play on when I want, you know, but

Chuck Shute: 32:05

so how did you you said you just kept out? Or did you take lessons on how to record? Or did you read books? Or did you have someone to help you or classes?

Paul Taylor: 32:13

There was all the YouTube stuff like, right? No, you know, and back then anything you tried to put in your computer didn't work with the other thing? Like, you know, okay, I'm gonna run Pro Tools down and run it with this interface. And, of course, error message, you know, and I'd call, I'd sit on phone every day, you know, with, you know, tech support, and the tech support would say, No, it's not our thing. It's their thing. And it was very, very frustrating for me. You know, I, it took everything from me just to kind of keep going. And so of course, I had some friends that were better at it than I was, and, you know, I would drag them over, you know, I tried not to bother them too much. But, you know, so it was a very long process for someone like me, so some of my friends, man, they just have that brain. Yeah. Cool stuff. You know?

Chuck Shute: 33:03

Yeah. So 2000 is when you think you kind of got there. So when did you start doing all the TV stuff and trying to record was it like 95, or,

Paul Taylor: 33:13

I mean, probably around 95.

Chuck Shute: 33:15

So it took about five years of trial and error and just pushing through and it was

Paul Taylor: 33:20

about it was about three years, it was about three years, I kind of just was floundering a bit and you know, in a good solid year, where I was just really trying to get good with the equipment and all that and, you know, but what because, like I say, if it was now everything, you know, like, you know, you throw it in a Mac, and all the things read each other and everything's smooth, but not in those days. You know,

Chuck Shute: 33:44

I feel like Yeah, even now, I struggle with that stuff, too. Like for my podcast getting like the there was I got a new camera and I was like all excited because I was gone with this camera looks so nice, but it doesn't sync with the audio. And so that was a giant nightmare trying to even with YouTube, it's sometimes hard to figure out how to do stuff.

Paul Taylor: 34:00

Yeah, well, or you know, like I've gotten pretty good. Like, I'm very good at logic. I've been using it since before they even had audio with it. Wow, that was my first one I really got great at and I've been using it pretty much since the emagic days. Now of course Apple owns it now but I also run Pro Tools and I I mess around with Ableton and all those are pretty, you know, it takes me a little bit and I go okay, I get it. Yesterday I downloaded a free trial of Cubase oh my god I you know, that one never heard of that one. Oh, it's a lot a lot of film composers and people use it. It's called Cubase Pro or, Oh, man I that I opened that went up and it is a whole different animal that I am not going to be messing with. I know it does a lot of great stuff a great program but it's you know, for a guy that does what I do where it's pretty much the songwriting. Yeah, logic definitely does everything I need and you know, and I use Pro Tools to be compatible with some of the other people I chord with just so I can, you know, trade files back and forth but

Chuck Shute: 35:04

right so yeah, so although you said 300 songs, but the biggest one has to be the Sabrina the Teenage Witch theme song, right?

Paul Taylor: 35:11

That was an amazing, you know, that one did really well for me,

Chuck Shute: 35:16

does it still bring in money because that shows still gotta be on like in other countries randomly like random times. And

Paul Taylor: 35:23

my my friend Danny Lux, who actually was here for dinner last night, he's moved to Nashville now, he was swamped at the time and he was doing the music for Sabrina. And they decided Sabrina was going to go off to college, and they needed a new main title. And he's like, Dude, I don't have time to do this. But if if you want to go for it, go for it. And so I gave it a shot and just lucked out. I mean, it took three tries, they kept changing their mind on what they wanted. And then we landed on this one. And they said, Hey, Bullseye, you know, make it five seconds longer. We don't care how you do it. And you got a main title. And I, I mean, I was happy because at the time, I didn't have a lot going on that was around the same time that was about in 2000, just as I was starting to get good at recording and I was like, wow, I hope this happens. And you know, I couldn't believe it when I got it. And then, boy, the checks started rolling. And I was like, Okay, that was a great little song for me. You know, I kind of lived off it for 10 years.

Chuck Shute: 36:22

Yeah, that's cool. Okay, see, that's what I wonder because like, there's a guy here named Roger Klein, he was in a band called the refreshments. And he wrote the theme song for the show, King of the Hill. And I was like, I wonder if he just lives off those Royal. I mean, he does other stuff, too. But I wonder if that was a big piece of how he can continue to make music.

Paul Taylor: 36:39

Yeah, main titles. You know, if it's on a major network, yeah, titles are worth a lot of money. And they're very hard to get. And I'm so lucky, you know, that Danny was nice enough to, you know, hand that over to me. So,

Chuck Shute: 36:55

yeah, and I heard you say now that it's even more competitive, to try to get those things and that's like, such a big piece of money in music, I think because you don't you don't make any money off the record sales, right?

Paul Taylor: 37:07

Well, not a lot. That's for sure. You know, I mean, the best thing is if you're a band you can get out there and you know, I see all these bands now like you know that are doing coffee or are their own beer like dream theaters. Got their own beer. And of course merch I mean merch is a you know, you the percentages on merch have always been better than record sales. So, yeah,

Chuck Shute: 37:30

yeah, I've heard like some big band, what was it the band the other day said, we're traveling t shirt sales company, and we play jingles to sell our T shirts.

Paul Taylor: 37:38

That's pretty accurate. Yeah. That's

Chuck Shute: 37:41

crazy. Well, so I want to ask you about this. I heard you say in the 90s. I mean, obviously, that was a tough time for Winger. And like one of the things was like Metallica and their video like throwing the darts or whatever. But I heard you say that Metallica Metallica call and apologize to kip for that?

Paul Taylor: 37:56

They've talked? Yeah, I know that given them correspond down. So yeah, it's oh, you know, I don't know exactly what was said. But okay. We're all good man. You know, on lady said they were texting the other day. And that's great, man. That's the way it should be. Yeah.

Chuck Shute: 38:13

I love to hear stuff like that. I like because that's like, yeah, that's just cool to hear that when people everybody, like ever wanted to be friends. You know, it's like, why not?

Paul Taylor: 38:22

Yeah. Well, you know, and to their defense. I mean, we were all a little cocky. And, you know, the old days are really competitive. And

Chuck Shute: 38:29

I found this picture of you. It's so funny. It's a bad picture. And your hair is so freakin like, how did you even get your hair that big? I gotta, I gotta show you probably seen it. But it's like, your hair is like big. It's like a foot taller than Kipps. It's crazy.

Paul Taylor: 38:44

Saying how but yeah, it's space. What are you gonna do? Yeah, I honestly, I was the only one that never used any products. And my hair was really coarse and wiry. And ah, I kind of pull it out. And yeah, there's some very funny photos from the day. I mean, I say these days, I was like a walking palm tree. You know,

Chuck Shute: 39:04

right. Now, it's funny, because like, everyone was like doing 80s parties and stuff. A while back. But then like, there was a few years ago where there was actually a 90s party. And then I was looking at all the 90s fashion. I was like, you know, the 90s fashion was maybe even more ridiculous than the 80s I mean, it was just like these weird little things. Like everyone had the scrunchies and the flannels and the Doc Martens and I mean, some of that stuff looks looks ridiculous now too, so it's just a sign of the times like,

Paul Taylor: 39:30

yeah, you know, it's always changing. And you know, like, back in the 70s. We would have been laughing at guys that were dressed like Elvis. It was slicked back hair. Yeah. It always changes and you know, the best thing is if you can look back and just laugh at yourself, you know?

Chuck Shute: 39:45

Oh, no, but I mean, music is still

Paul Taylor: 39:47

self that day and laugh at yourself.

Chuck Shute: 39:51

But the music has stood the test of time and people still coming out to see you. I just saw you guys. That's actually the first time I've ever seen you played with Skid Row and warrant and That casino in Arizona a few weeks ago, a couple months ago. And it was amazing. It was a giant venue. Lots of people. Everyone's screaming. It was a fun time on show

Paul Taylor: 40:10

and of course, we were opening so we only played, I think like eight songs. So it was pretty much all singles on our set that day. But yeah, that was a fun show. I mean, I remember hearing Oh, it's gonna be in a pool area. And I thought pool area, like, who's going to show up, but I got out there and I was like, I saw all the people. I was like, Man, that was amazing turnout.

Chuck Shute: 40:30

Yeah. Now are you guys doing? So I want to see you do a headlining show because how long do you play? If it's if you're headlining you put like an hour and a half?

Paul Taylor: 40:38

You know, I think it's usually about an hour and 15. Okay, getting shows. So yeah, and we've got, man, and you're in Arizona. Yeah. We're playing in Tucson. Oh, but I don't know if who we're playing with or if we're opening or headlining. I think that's our show. So you know, absolutely.

Chuck Shute: 41:04

Oh, come down. Yeah, that would be fun. Like two hours away if I'm if I'm around if it makes sense. Because, ya know, I'd like to see more, like more of the deep cuts and stuff there. So you have such a great catalog. Like I was listening to the the first two albums today to kind of refresh my memory. I was like, Oh, so many songs are really good. Like, is it poison angel? I liked that song. Yeah, that was a deeper cut. But I was like, Oh, this is gonna be a good riff.

Paul Taylor: 41:26

Yeah. Yeah. That's always a fun one to play we have. I don't think we've played in years, you know, but it was in the set. Yeah, at one point. And, you know, the more records you have out, it starts getting tougher and tougher to figure out which songs to play, and, but we try and kind of get a good mix between the ballads. And the ones we have to play in the rockers and then the proggy type, you know, stuff like rainbow or tin soldier. So yeah, yeah.

Chuck Shute: 41:54

I love the down incognito. I know you really you weren't on that record, but you get to play that song live now. Like, do you like that song?

Paul Taylor: 42:00

Oh, yeah. It's so different. You know, I don't think I probably it probably took that one probably took a little bit to grow on me because it's so different. But yeah, it's fun to play. And I mean, the crowd just everybody's singing that one. So

Chuck Shute: 42:15

yeah, that was cool. Like, I went down. And I found the steakhouse where they filmed that video, and I took a picture. And then I put the caption, you know, and you comment, and I was like, Well, this is kind of weird. Like, I'm posting this picture. And the keyboard player from the actual band is commenting on it. Like, that was pretty cool.

Paul Taylor: 42:33

Yeah, I vaguely remember that. Yeah. That's cool. Yeah, that's

Chuck Shute: 42:37

cool. So is there anything? I'm glad you've done so many? I mean, Steve Perry, written a hit TV theme song like you've toured with like everyone, is there anything that you haven't done, or any, anybody that you would want to either meet or jam with or to or write with that you haven't been able to yet?

Paul Taylor: 42:55

God, I mean, well, I said this on another podcast, and I probably should come up with a little bit more of a variety, but I would love to write a song with pink of all things.

Chuck Shute: 43:07

I think super talented.

Paul Taylor: 43:09

You know, yeah, I mean, I've been to two of her shows. And they're a couple of the best shows I've ever seen. Just the pacing. And I mean, man, she can build a song like that, you know, the duet she did with Steven Tyler. And just she's she's awesome. She a Nashville? No, I don't think so. He lives but I just throw that out just for fun, because I just walked out of her shows go on, man, I you know, I went the first time kind of is gonna, you know, I know. It's gonna be probably more pop and all that I tried to see a lot of different stuff. And we walked out of there just there was a bunch of as at when I had gotten like, 12 tickets, because my wife had access to a suite. And we I was with Jimmy from train and some other people and Oh, Jimmy, okay. Yeah, yeah. And we just were all completely floored how good she was. So

Chuck Shute: 44:06

does your wife is she in the business or something or how she gets the sweets?

Paul Taylor: 44:09

Just she's in marketing and radio. She did radio a lot of years. And so just through that, so yeah.

Chuck Shute: 44:16

Is that how does that work? Like, do you have those connections? Can you just call people and say, I'm Paul Taylor, like, give me good seats?

Paul Taylor: 44:23

Absolutely not.

Chuck Shute: 44:26

I tell like one of the best benefits

Paul Taylor: 44:29

I get in No, I wish you know, I don't

Chuck Shute: 44:32

find out the band's like, I mean, like if Skid Row was in town. You wanted to see them? I'm sure you could just call them right.

Paul Taylor: 44:37

If it's my buds. Yeah, of course. You know, and I'm in effect. We're playing a show with them. Saturday night. It's going to be quiet riot. US warrant and skid row in Kentucky. Oh,

Chuck Shute: 44:49

that sounds that'll be that'll be a blast.

Paul Taylor: 44:51

Yeah, it's gonna be a fun one. And I guess I guess Rudy's back in quiet riot. So that'll be fun to see. And you know,

Chuck Shute: 44:58

yeah. What is your thought on that with the Quiet write stuff, because people hate and they're like, is only one original member or one point, I think there was no original members. But for people that want to see quiet riot songs performed, I mean, there's really no other option if I want to go in here like a quiet right album track, the only way to do that would be to go to a quiet ride show.

Paul Taylor: 45:21

Yeah, or a tribute band. And, you know, my thought on that is it's like, it's music. It's, you know, like, no matter who it's coming from, and yeah, as if you get the chance to see the original band, and there's most of them in there, or like in winners case, weirdly enough, all five original guys, which is very rare, of course. And that's when we don't have subs. Because of course, John and Reber constantly, you know, doing other shows, but you know, it's music is supposed to make people happy. And you know, like, we have a journey tribute band in town, that place called resurrection, they are fantastic. And I go down there and have beers. I'm friends with the guys. And it's a blast, you know, I and there's moments that come in and after playing with Steve Perry for three years, I would know, there's moments that they're so good, I kind of forget who I'm watching. Because I mean, they really nail it. So you know, and the place is sold out every time even if they play two nights sold out. Because people want to hear those songs. And, you know, and yeah, I'm sure they would all rather see the original people doing it. But as time goes on, it's getting tougher and tougher, you know?

Chuck Shute: 46:29

So yeah. And then it's whether the other thing that's going on, it's now some of the the original members of people are saying, well, they can't they can't do it. Like I mean, I don't know if you saw this video of Bon Jovi. It was like it was one song, I didn't see the whole concert. And everyone's saying, Oh, you need to hang it up. Because he I don't know he cracked a couple notes or something. I don't know. Do you have an opinion on that? Like, is there a time where bands need to maybe hang it up? Or do you think maybe he just had an off night?

Paul Taylor: 46:55

I don't know. I mean, that's up to the band. And you know, I don't know, I haven't heard anything, but I've heard he's having a rough time, which is really sad. I mean, I mean, if there's anybody I sympathize with, it's the singers, because even the ones that are pulling it off pretty well. It's hard for them. You know, it's hard for Kip and everybody. I mean, as you get older, your vocal cords thicken. And we all wrote songs back in the day that were through the stratosphere high. Right. You know, but like when Kipps case, I mean, he works very hard to be able to do these shows, he warms up and he does cool down exercises, and he's very careful. And he doesn't already and you know, and I mean, you know, like he says, it's like, Hey, man, this is a lot more fun for you guys than it is for me, you know, because I have to get out there and constantly be, you know, worried about my voice going down, you know, and that's with all of them. You know?

Chuck Shute: 47:51

Yeah, that's gotta be I can't imagine. It's got to be so hard. Yeah, cuz you're right. You're when your voice people age. And this is like, like you said, you wrote the songs in the 80s that were like, screaming. And it's got to be those are going to be some of the hardest songs to sing. I just can't imagine trying to scream.

Paul Taylor: 48:08

I mean, like that the scream at the beginning of Madeline. I'm always just amazed. He just wails it out. You know, still, I mean, he, you know, all the work he's put into preserving his voice is definitely paid off. You know? And yeah,

Chuck Shute: 48:20

I saw you guys love just those couple months ago, and everything sounded like top notch. It was it was incredible. I was really impressed.

Paul Taylor: 48:27

Thanks. Yeah, it's fun. Fun.

Chuck Shute: 48:29

Okay. Well, I guess that's all I have for you. I mean, we I was unless there's anything else? Is there any other projects you have that you can talk about? I thought that you had said something about? You're working with somebody who was like top secret? Well, that would have been MC. Okay, so that one's out. Nothing else

Paul Taylor: 48:45

say that, you know, we had worked on some stuff. So, and it's, you know, keep your ears peeled for it, and probably the end of the year. And it's as he says, It's mean,

Chuck Shute: 48:55

can't wait, that's gonna be amazing. And because I don't think there's a new Motley album, so this is like, what we got is the new MC album, which is pretty cool, too.

Paul Taylor: 49:03

Yeah, that would be awesome. And but yeah, that's about it, you know, other than just gonna start really focusing on getting some of these songs of mine out, and I'll probably just release them one by one. You know, I don't, I'm not gonna put out a record. I don't think you know, I just why not?

Chuck Shute: 49:18

You should do do like the Paul Taylor box set. I don't want to hear at all

Paul Taylor: 49:23

that Paul Taylor and friends this way, you know,

Chuck Shute: 49:26

are you gonna put out the demo of miles away with Eric Martin, because I can't find that anywhere.

Paul Taylor: 49:31

Not to mention Eric. i He's one person that me and Eric have not written you know, in years. I mean, since like the 80s Probably. And he's definitely one guy. I'd love to do another song with Eric, you know,

Chuck Shute: 49:46

was he was he kind of like was always really funny because he was so funny on my podcast. I never met the guy and he's making fun of me and just like acting like we're old friend. I was like, see? Always.

Paul Taylor: 49:56

Always like that. Okay, that's been and yeah, yes. long as I can remember, and I mean, that's, you know, I mean, me and Eric go way back, I found Eric in a, I went down to San Francisco to a club called my boo Hey, in the 70s. And he was a 70s Damn thing and then a band called Kid courage. And I was like, Oh, my God, who is that guy. And so I told my friend, Donovan, man, we got to have that guy for our singer. So I found out they were playing the next week again. So I went down to see him and I was gonna get to know him and stuff. And he wasn't in the band anymore. And I'm like, Hey, where's your singer? They're like, well, you don't know. You know. And so anyway, long story short, some girl that I knew, knew him and just said, Oh, he's in Sacramento, at his mom's for a while. And so I long story short contacted him. I was being managed by Stevie Nicks his brother. And so they flew us down to LA. And that started a year long thing down in LA of us recording and writing some songs that are hysterical. And when we listened back now, you know, like, we, once again we were trying to do songs that were way up there. If you ask Eric about it, he'll be like, Man, those guys were always making me saying he was on a helium song called lonely and oh, it's when I hear it. Now. I just die laughing but you know, that's how you learn, you know, you just write some stuff that sucks. And you know, you get better and or hopefully you do. And, you know, I still write stuff that sucks. But at least I'm smart enough to instantly go know that one sucks out, you know,

Chuck Shute: 51:32

Oh, I'd love to hear those old ones. Oh, that's always fun, especially the demo, because I could just hear you guys. You both like rave about it. And Kip raved about it. And I'm like, I kind of want to hear this.

Paul Taylor: 51:41

Yeah, no miles away. That was kind of before. I mean, I still was terrible at recording. And that was actually before I tried to get into all the computer stuff. So I had a little four track thing. So the quality of it's horrible, but Eric sang the crap out of it. I mean, yeah, he is, even through my lousy sounding demo. His voice, you know, solely sold the song to everybody. And quite a few people had heard it and had interest in it at the time where and then Kip heard it. And I'd gotten, you know, In Winger, and he's like, did we need to put that on one of our records? I'm like, okay, great. I'm glad as a home, you know,

Chuck Shute: 52:19

isn't a wingers biggest hit? It's wingers biggest hit,

Paul Taylor: 52:23

right. Yeah, well, yeah.

Chuck Shute: 52:24

The charts. According to the charts are the highest charting sing over and over that's worth. It's pretty cool.

Paul Taylor: 52:31

Thanks. So yeah, it's great man, you know, it's always good to see you know, a song, have a home and have people respond to it. And he's never known. You just write what you feel and put it out there. And sometimes, you know, that's what I've learned. Like, sometimes I'll just think I wrote the best thing. And, you know, I've got a couple of friends that I bounce stuff off of, and, you know, every once a while, I'll just write one that I think I knocked it out of the park, and they'll go you know, but that's the thing about songs, you know, there, there is no better or worse song. I mean, there's a lot of songs out there I don't like are huge hits and vice versa, you know. So, you know, and that's TV stuff, I would get really caught up in trying to write really good stuff for TV. And then I like, I'll never forget, like five years ago, they asked me they're like, Hey, can you write like a grunge grunge garage type thing. And so they gave me some examples. And it was all this really non melodic stuff with these fuzz guitars. And I'm like, God, I don't even know if I could write something's bad. So I wrote this kind of song, but I was still doing what I naturally would do creating melodies. And I'm like, Okay, I gotta dumb this down. And so I got the sinner. You can just sing like when the on the chorus go down, and just don't sing any real melody and kind of just don't sit phrase it like you're drunk, just kind of neat. And he goes, like acting or something. I said, you couldn't sing it bad enough, trust me. And so we finished it. And it was kind of, I don't know, I was like, okay, that's not my kind of music. And that thing has placed a lot. It was real high energy, but just sounded like noise. And really, it was placing and every time I see it on one of my statements, I'm like, Man, I need to just get out of my own way and write anything for TV, you know, because that's

Chuck Shute: 54:29

fascinating. Can you say which song that is?

Paul Taylor: 54:32

Not I'll have to go look up what it's even called. I mean, with that many songs, I get my statements and a lot of times I can't even remember. I see song titles. I'm like, which one is that? I have to go back and but I'll dig it up. You know, we'll get together when I play Tucson and I'll play some of this crazy stuff.

Chuck Shute: 54:47

Okay. Yeah, sounds awesome. Great. Well, I always end each episode with a charity is there when you want to give a quick shout out to her at the end?

Paul Taylor: 54:54

I am always giving to St. Jude. Okay,

Chuck Shute: 54:58

yeah, I've promoted them many times. I'll put Have that in the show notes along with I guess what? I put wingers website, you don't have your own website. So

Paul Taylor: 55:06

yeah, I don't. But yeah, I always me and Mark slaughter and some people took a van ride down from here to Memphis one day and went down there and they gave us a tour all day at St. Jude. And wow, you don't walk out of that day without just going, you know, the place operates on it takes it back then, which was like 10 years ago, a million dollars a day and it's, you know, 95% donation that comes in to keep that place. We're all in. It's just amazing what they do.

Chuck Shute: 55:40

That's really cool. Yeah, it's such a great cause that, who wouldn't support that? You know, that's, that's what I love about promoting charities like that. Because it's like, everybody, we can all get behind that, you know?

Paul Taylor: 55:51

Yeah. And it was never the funniest part of that day, we they introduced us this little group of kids that were kind of in remission and starting to do good. And Mark slaughter is great with doing funny voices. And so I'll turn off some Donald Duck. And this little kid marches up right and is facing this year crazy. It was classic man is like, but kids are awesome, man.

Chuck Shute: 56:16

Yeah, no, that's great. Such a terrible thing. Kid kids getting sick just doesn't seem right. So that's great. There's St. Jude's out there to kind of help help with that because of the terrible thing. Yeah. Cool. All right. Well, thank you so much for doing this. And yeah, I'll see you on Tucson the summer. I guess it'll be hot as hell. So we're short.

Paul Taylor: 56:34

It's right toward the end of it. Why? No, we're doing Tucson and then the following night. We're in Las Vegas.

Chuck Shute: 56:40

Oh, Vegas is fun, too. I'm going there this weekend for the NFL Draft. So that should be fun.

Paul Taylor: 56:44

Cool, man. Yep. Oh, we'll be in touch and okay. So literally, I'll play some of that stuff. Yeah. Okay.

Chuck Shute: 56:50

Cool. Sounds good. Thanks so much. See you later. Thank you, man. Bye bye. Thanks again to Paul Taylor for coming on the show. Make sure to check out the winger website for tour dates and follow Paul and winger on social media for more updates. Paul's Instagram is fun. He posts some good stuff on there. That's how I found him. I'm on there too. If you want to follow me, my podcast account, and on Instagram and my podcast on tick tock, I post short clips of the episodes and get a little preview. And make sure to follow me somewhere or subscribe to the show on Spotify or Apple podcasts or YouTube. Wherever you listen to watch. We have some exciting guests coming up some music related people some non music related people all super interesting, in my opinion. I love to keep the show eclectic. It keeps it fun for me, and hopefully for the listeners too. So hope you enjoyed this episode. I do want to make a short announcement. We recently had a friend of mine passed away unexpectedly in a car wreck. So I'd like to dedicate this episode to her. Not that she was a big fan of of Paul Taylor wing or any of that stuff. But she was just a good friend, April. Well, I'm thinking about you. So I just want to dedicate this to her and she was very inspirational. So life is short. So just something to think about for everybody. Thanks for listening. Have a great rest of your day and remember to shoot for the moon