Chuck Wright (ex Quiet Riot, Alice Cooper band)

Chuck Wright is a bass guitarist who has played with Quiet Riot, Alice Cooper, Giuffria and many others. He has a new solo album out now titled “Sheltering Sky” that features a long list of stellar musicians including Jeff Scott Soto, Scotti Hill, Troy Lucketta, and Derek Sherinian. We discuss all this in the interview plus Axl Rose in the bathroom, Robin Zander in a bowling alley, music royalties, social media and more! 

0:00:00 - Intro
0:00:37 - Facial Hair & Style 
0:02:28 - Military School & Rock n Roll 
0:04:18 - Jack Bruce's Bass & Memorabilia
0:05:45 - Developing Artists & Music Scene
0:07:47 - Axl Rose & Guns 'n Roses 
0:11:45 - Alice Cooper & Spinal Tap Moments 
0:15:30 - Slash & Guitar Feel vs Technicality 
0:18:17 - Chuck's New Solo Album 
0:22:20 - Throwin' Stones & Negativity 
0:26:34 - Jam Night at the Whisky & Robin Zander 
0:31:15 - Social Media Use 
0:33:32 - The Other Side & Frankie Banali 
0:36:00 - Giving Up The Ghost 
0:37:00 - Farewell Horizon 
0:38:25 - Writing Lyrics 
0:40:50 - Cradle of The Sun 
0:42:46 - Performing Live 
0:46:05 - Current Projects 
0:48:02 - Quiet Riot & The Simpsons 
0:50:20 - Two Different Quiet Riots 
0:52:19 - Background Vocals & Michael Anthony 
0:53:15 - Ted Nugent 
0:54:40 - No Picks 
0:57:10 - Song Royalties  
1:00:03 - New Album 
1:02:05 - World Central Kitchen 
1:03:55 - Outro 

Chuck Wright website:
https://www.chuckwright.com

World Central Kitchen website:
https://wck.org

Chuck Shute website:
http://chuckshute.com

Transcript

Chuck Shute: 0:00

Hey, stick around because we got Chuck right former bass player for quiet right and Alice Cooper. And he's also worked with a ton of other stellar musicians, including guys from Guns and Roses, which he's going to tell us all about. And he's got his new solo record out right now called Sheltering Sky with lots of special guests, including Scotty hill of Skid Row. And Jeff Scott Soto. And this is a really fun interview. You're gonna love it. Stay right there okay, well welcome. Chuck, right. Check, right yeah. What's your podcast? Awesome to Chuck's love it.

Chuck Wright: 0:41

Yeah. Dueling checks.

Chuck Shute: 0:43

Yeah. So, you know, it's interesting, like so your facial hair. That's a newer thing that you grew it out for a quiet right video, and you just kept it but you never had that before?

Chuck Wright: 0:53

How do you know that? No. Anyway, you've got some inside info. Um, actually, no, my whole life. I've never had hair on my face. Yeah, I can never it never really filled in enough. I mean, I can't grow it up. Anyway. So in doing a video with quiet riot, I needed to grow scruff out to be this western character. I actually get killed in the thing. I was told that I die gracefully and great. But anyway, I grew it out and people were commenting. Oh, he looked great. It makes you look younger. It brings your jawline in and all that. So I went really? I don't know. I still haven't really gotten used to it. You know, I don't know. It's been a quite a while that I've had it. But it's, you know, I have to dye it and it's really great. But you know how it is. But that's how that came about was? Yeah, video video. Shoot.

Chuck Shute: 1:44

No, that's cool. I like it makes you look like a like a music. You know, like, it's really like a musician, kind of, especially when you put like the fedora on with it.

Chuck Wright: 1:53

As you can see in the background. I have a lot of hats. All over the place. Yeah, I've been, you know, haberdashery. I've been when I was a kid, I was in military school for almost nine years. So I guess that's kind of, I always wear hats. And I actually just posted a picture of me. In my very first band, it's like the first band picture of me and I'm wearing a hat. Think of like, wait a minute, I'm wearing that too. So I guess it's kind of been a thing for me. Off and on. Obviously, during the 80s it was all about the big hair. So I wasn't doing the hat thing. So

Chuck Shute: 2:27

right. Wait, so tell me about this military school for night? What are you in trouble or something you get?

Chuck Wright: 2:31

No, no. My mom, I never knew my dad. My mom thought it would be you know, I guess she saw me playing with Barbies with my sister or something.

Unknown: 2:42

I don't know if she Oh, no,

Chuck Wright: 2:44

she Yeah. So she put me in the school. And I really, you know, in that environment, I did really well. I was second in command of the battalion. And I was going to go to school, Air Force Academy school to get me to go to the the main Air Force Academy. Because I wanted to fly, fly jets. And my whole life changed because of rock and roll. That was my course. I I took some a little of some guitar lessons when I was a little kid. And I could kind of play guitar. And when I was, I think, almost 15 the neighborhood kids, they were 1617 bigger kids and I was big for my age. They said, Hey, man, you play guitar, right? And I said, well, a little they're gonna think you could play bass. And I go, Wait a minute, is that only four strings bass. And I go, let me ask my mom. So she got me a bass and the first first band I really got into was Jack Bruce, and cream. And it's all about improvisation. So I kind of was self taught that way. And I did my first gig, which was a UCLA fraternity party, I made $75 I drank beer, and the girls thought I was cute. So I went to my mom and I go this is what I want to do. This is my life's calling. I want to do music. And she was like she tried to talk me out of it of course because but you've invested eight years of your life and you're doing so good and you know is high caliber educational kind of school and, and just I was pretty organized. So I was able to excel in that environment. So anyway, it changed and I became a rock and roll guy and and Jack Bruce, who just had a birthday a couple days ago, passed away obviously, I think 2014 I can't remember the date. But anyway, I got a bass which is a Gibson EB three bass because of him. That was the bass I got now cut two years later, and this is kind of a cool trivia story. years later, I'm on tour with Vanilla Fudge with Carmine and the opening acts bass player, inherited millions of dollars. And he started a music collection. And one of the things items he had was the bass that Jack Bruce recorded sunshine of your love with which was the very first song I ever recorded. So I went over to his house, there was the bass and I sat down and played the bass. That was the very The first time that I ever learned from, wow, that's kind of a crazy story. But that happened. Yeah.

Chuck Shute: 5:07

That's that. No, that's just crazy. Like, it must have been like, you feel like the magic from that? Or is it just?

Chuck Wright: 5:13

Yeah, it was, I was in awe of the whole situation. I mean, he had Jimmy pages of Vox amps, and he had Timmy Bogart space up there. I mean, he inherited two $50 million, you know, so he had like, all this incredible. And he's a, he was a really great musician, too. So,

Chuck Shute: 5:30

anyway, so cool. I love that kind of stories. And that's what I want to do. If I went to auto, it's just buy up cool, I want to, you know, what I want to do is I want to put bands back together, that will do like, oh, we can't, it's too expensive to try, okay, I'm gonna buy you a tour,

Chuck Wright: 5:44

what I would do is I would start a production company and label and start getting bands and treating them right and having them do their own thing, instead of having to be put into a, a shelf in a box, because I see so many of these guys just doing the same thing over and over and over. They're all just doing the same things, like, grow, do a little bit, you know, just kind of encourage and develop people develop artists, which stopped years ago, I like, you know, if you think about it, if a band like you, Youtube or springtime, Bruce Springsteen came out, they wouldn't, they wouldn't have lasted because their first albums didn't do anything. They, the record companies believed in them, and stayed with them and develop them as artists. So they were able to grow into this massive, worldwide phenomenon, you know,

Chuck Shute: 6:27

well, do you think you need the record companies now? Because I feel like everyone's just making their own music in their basement or whatever. And they just keep ain't making any they don't really need adequate company.

Chuck Wright: 6:35

But in that there's a problem, because what do you get 60,000 songs released today? Something like that on Spotify. I know, I heard it. Last Last night, I was hanging with Millie from from Steelheart. And he said he was no man. It's like 80,000 now and I go No way. And, and I said, that's crazy. I go, how do you? How do you rise above that? You know, so you kind of need to, I think you still need a machine to do it. Right? You know, the reason I'm with you now is the publicity department. And Cleopatra is putting me out to do like interviews all over the place about my new album. And I don't know if I would have been able to generate that myself. You know, by reaching out? I don't know. It's I think it's good to have that if you can.

Chuck Shute: 7:19

Yeah, I do love hearing the stories about people, at least when they start that they're doing it on their own and stuff in the you know, it's like this grassroots thing. Like back in the 80s. I think the flyering was the big thing that everyone you know, putting up flyers and stuff, and

Chuck Wright: 7:32

you don't have to tell me I mean, yeah, we're the 80s late 70s. I was I was the guy with the staple gun hitting all the when we had telephone poles. I was hitting all the telephone poles. You know, going up Laurel Canyon in the Sunset Strip is standing out there going Hey, you gotta check out my pant. So cool, Ben. I remember this is a this is a great one. I remember being at the cat club. Right. And Axl Rose before they were signed is in the men's room to meet every guy that comes in there to push his band.

Chuck Shute: 8:00

It's really great. That is arias. I cannot even picture that because that's your cool customer now like he doesn't

Chuck Wright: 8:07

I know. But why not? Stand outside the door? Why are you standing by the seat when you come in? Yeah, I have a small bathroom. I remember and that always,

Chuck Shute: 8:20

like you can't once you're in it's like you're kind of trapped or he's kind of trapped.

Chuck Wright: 8:24

I maybe that's the case, but I was quieter. I just I just always remember that because then they got signed and they took off and blew. They're a huge you know, one of the biggest Yeah.

Chuck Shute: 8:36

He told you he said hey, you should listen to my band's called guns.

Chuck Wright: 8:39

Everybody that came in. He said you got to hear my band's called Guns and Roses. I'll never forget that. And I ended up working with many of the members in my past of Guns and Roses, both Matt Sorum. I've done film projects with him and I did a solo album and I toured with Steven Adler. I did a movie soundtrack with slash was involved in that and played live with him. And Teddy's exact I did his solo record. And he's a really good still a very close friend. So it's Gilby Clarke I've played with him you know so

Chuck Shute: 9:10

the story that was your actual story though. It was just me and him in the back you haven't seen

Chuck Wright: 9:15

I've never seen him since man. I it's like that's a guy I've never had any contact with you know at all. Yeah, is he reads a good friend and I've worked with him a lot. I toured with Dizzy on the Dizzy and Jersey tour because it was just free and it was just one backup band which was me and Alex and and I think it was chilly. Who's in a puddle of mud on drums and we toured as the Disney Jersey tour.

Chuck Shute: 9:41

That's a great I didn't know

Chuck Wright: 9:43

because the love hate materials killer. Oh, I love it. Yeah, a couple of times. In fact we were doing blackout in the quiet right show but I love that really it was great and obviously doing the the Guns and Roses material and Dizzy would do like, like smell got John and some other cover stuff besides just GNR? Which he's always a blast. He's great, really great at what he does fun. It was a fun tour. It

Chuck Shute: 10:08

was a great, yeah, it's slash, is he the best guitarist you've ever played with? And I mean, did you notice it when you're playing with him? Are you just in awe? Or is it just like any other gig?

Chuck Wright: 10:17

Well, the thing I remember about that, and I'll talk about what I think of him as a player, but the thing I remember the most about the one gig we did, we were in, in Sundance Film Festival and the film that we'd worked on. They, they hired us to come and play up there. And the place was packed and people were paying like ridiculous amounts of money to come see, because they knew slash was playing. And they knew that and actually, Deaf was there, too. I played bass, the Deaf came out for a song. And I, Teddy was there. And Matt Sorum was on drums. And the thing I remember is, is slash goes tickety tickety, tickety, tickety, tickety, tickety, tickety, tickety, tickety tickety ticket ticket walks up to the mic and goes not gonna happen. Wow. The crowd went crazy. When he played the riff, right? And then he goes, not gonna happen. And then they go, you know, we just did songs from the movie. And then and then what a crazy thing that happened is we all switched instruments on the last song, and I switched to drugs. I love playing drums. But we're at 5000 feet. I was like, dry heaving at the end of that. I was like, trying to do pushing too hard. And Matt was singing late and he's gonna come out, dude. It wasn't fun. I'll never forget that that whole experience. But that's basically my only time, which is kind of very limited. Working with slash himself.

Chuck Shute: 11:39

Yeah. Well, you've worked with so many frickin amazing musicians like but Cooper was

Chuck Wright: 11:44

a great one to work with. I got to tour with I did 75 cities. 17 countries started in Moscow and ended in Lisbon. Portugal with him, which I mean, what if you what a brilliant guy hung out with him every day? Pretty much shopping and

Chuck Shute: 11:59

okay, because I've had so many people from Alice Cooper's bands that have played with him. And everyone says the same thing. Like, oh, he's the nicest guy, great guy. Does that guy ever, like have a bad day and yell at somebody or like,

Chuck Wright: 12:11

the only thing I can say is we sat in the back of the bus once and counted members and we wrote we got it to 60. But anyway, that he's had throughout the course of his Alice Cooper band thing, keyboards, guitar players to get in and out in and out. Batman had Eric Singer who's in Kiss. Eric Dover, you might know from Yeah, had him on the show. Yeah, he was slash slash his band and Joe and jellyfish. I think it is. You know, Pete freezin, who had been with Alice before, and 10 zigzag was on the keyboards back then. But I remember we talked about it, there's there's 60 different guys, but he does become somebody else. I've seen the transformation when he becomes Alice Cooper being Alice Cooper onstage it's like this thing comes over many turns into this. You know, like, it's like it's so bizarre to see because, you know, I miss this Hey, man, let's go have coffee, you know, and then all of a sudden, it's like, you know, get out of my way. It's like we did this one show. It was at Halloween and and the drum the drums the steps up to the drum riser, had these Scotland. Human Hands and skulls hanging on him. Well put kiss masks over. And he took he took his I'll never forget he one song he does on a crutch. He has a crunchy brings out. He took the crushing just destroyed Paul Stanley's head over and over and over. I don't know why. I don't know what that was about. But if he was intense, was like that was another side of Alice I've ever seen. That's like a keys playing a character. Yeah, he was playing a character just went crazy.

Chuck Shute: 13:43

And I'm gonna be how he gets out his aggression then is playing this character.

Chuck Wright: 13:47

Maybe I do have one of the thing about that. And I didn't really go about we'll talk well, it doesn't matter about so

Chuck Shute: 13:54

anyway. Oh, slash no one's talking about so I love slash.

Chuck Wright: 13:58

I mean, I'll get back to that. But the funny story about the Alice tour is you know, a lot of times people go what do you have any Spinal Tap moments, you know, and that most people are aware of the spinal tap movie. There were two with Alice Cooper I'll never forget. They do this whole thing where he's in a straight jacket. They take him to the guillotine. Eric singers doing the drum roll. They have the executioner with it with the hood on holding the rope and he yells die and they dropped the they dropped the guillotine and it stopped halfway through halfway and his head fell off. Oh. They rushed him away. And then another time there's his tube. During the show he like feed my Frankenstein he builds it takes like the head that was cut off. And he puts it on the body that he'd been building in this tube. And then the drum solo and then the tube fills up with smoke and then the door comes open and he comes out dressed like in the white suit that the the bodies were and and then we do no more Mr. Nice Guy right Hey, well, he couldn't get out. It was filled with what's happened in spinal tap? Yeah, totally. Oh, he had to go out and around the back and come around the side. Wow gag of him turning into this like thing didn't happen anyway. So then

Chuck Shute: 15:15

does that piss him off to get you motherfuckers? Or is he just like laugh it off? No, he

Chuck Wright: 15:21

laughed it off. I mean, he, he's, he's,

Chuck Shute: 15:23

I've never such a class act.

Chuck Wright: 15:24

He's, you know, he's super consistent. He was a great man. Now, back to your question about what did I think of slash as a player? Under the circumstances of that situation, I there wasn't much to do you know, when there wasn't a lot of us jamming or doing things. But I did go see him play with his band at the Whisky. And I sat there in awe watching how good he was and how he could just, he's like, No, he plays kind of sideways and how he did. He did the solo that must have lasted for 15 minutes. That was interesting the whole time. And honestly, I gotta be honest with you, I never really held them to the same level that I hold somebody like Jeff Beck, or Allan Holdsworth or David Gilmore, or those kinds of guys that I totally just, they're my guys, right. Until I saw that show. I hadn't really watched guns rose or listened to it. I have a lot more respect for Guns and Roses music when I had to learn it. When I learned how intricate some of the parts were and the chord changes and the key changes and all the different things. When I had to go tour with Adler. And with dizzy when I toured with him to learn that sets I gained a new, high respect for that band.

Chuck Shute: 16:37

Is that how you would judge a good guitarist based on the how complicated and intricate the music is? Or is it more just about the feel?

Chuck Wright: 16:46

It's I feel I mean, I don't think there for me personally, I don't think there's a better guitar solo in the winter comfortably No. and painful is kind of fun. Yeah, yeah. I mean, make the notes count. You know, I tried to say that it's like, I forgot who I think I saw Dream Theater or some some band where the guys just shredding the whole time. And I wanted to hold up a sign that says no one cares, man. Make the notes kind of get put some heart and soul into those notes. You know,

Chuck Shute: 17:13

I kind of like well, I kind of liked the shredding. No, no, but you got to hear what you're saying.

Chuck Wright: 17:17

Yeah, got to do it at a time like on the first track on my album. I'm Alan Hines came on board. Who's he's he sells out whenever he plays or he suggests fusion guy. Yeah, he's beautiful melodies, but then he'll just go into something that's just like, Whoa, where'd that come from? But it's done. You know? I don't like guys that just come out and just start riffing. You know, they don't build up

Chuck Shute: 17:40

to it. It's like it can get repetitive. Yeah, like this. Some of those guys went off right away. You

Chuck Wright: 17:44

don't build up anything, right

Chuck Shute: 17:45

when every song is just shredding. It's like, it starts to get kind of like monotonous.

Chuck Wright: 17:50

Yeah, that's what I think. Totally. Zach. I felt like that. When I saw his last thing. It was just like the same thing over to Zack.

Chuck Shute: 18:00

Zack, well, Zack, wow. Okay, I was like, that's my thought. But I wasn't joking.

Chuck Wright: 18:04

I was I was kind of a man. It's like the same. It's like, whatever.

Chuck Shute: 18:08

He's so good, though. Like he just wowed me when I when he plays with.

Chuck Wright: 18:12

And what a great fit for him. And honestly, back then, right?

Chuck Shute: 18:14

Yeah, I know. I think so. Yeah. So let's talk about your your new so you said the way is the way to sound. So that's the first song right?

Chuck Wright: 18:20

Yeah. Now, what happened with in why I'm even having a solo record, which is never a plan. I never said oh, I'm gonna make a solo album. What happened was is the pandemic is in, I'm at home. And I wanted to take a bad situation. And I was watching the world with with all these major cities like Vegas, and they're bustling in New York. And there's like nobody there was like an apocalyptic sci fi experience. You know, so kooky. I took that feeling. And I recorded when someone's playing everything myself, I edited together a video, I got drone footage of showing the empty streets all over the world. And I had one central figure that's in a hazmat suit. So like he's the last man left on earth. And I had a train that that is just going through the, from the beginning of the video to the end, that's got nobody in it. It's just an empty train going through. And I put that out myself. And then I get a phone call from Troy McKenna from Tesla, the drummer in Tesla, and he said, Chuck, because I love the song, can I play drums? I'd love to play drums on it. And I go, I've never even thought about that. I go, Yeah, I'll send it he has a studio and I'll send him tracks. Drums came in at the same time. Allen, who I was talking about, said hey, I can put some guitar soloing on it. And I headed that together. And then I heard Derek Sherinian keyboard player from he was in Dream Theater, but he's got a bunch of great solo and he really liked it. So I said, Hey, can you put some electronic synth on this? We think and he said yeah, that's great. I'll do it. So. So then I released that one. And oddly enough, just a couple of days ago, I found out that I won Best been instrumental and best video on the rock was the heart of the rock music Alliance awards. And I had no idea was even nominated. Joe Satriani and John five were in the same category. Damn. I know in my abs that even out yet, but I that because that came out that those songs are on that song is on my album, but I put it out myself but it's going to be on on this album that I am releasing tomorrow. Oh, is it gonna live tomorrow? Yeah. On the 20th. Yeah.

Chuck Shute: 20:30

Okay, well, I'll try to get this episode out tonight then because I heard the whole thing and it's, yeah, that's interesting and makes sense that it was recorded in the pandemic because there it's there's a lot of like, dark, somber tones to it that are very spooky. And I feel like they could really lend themselves to some like cool movies or TV shows or something like that would be perfect.

Chuck Wright: 20:48

Yeah, I heard that for a lot of people. Now, again, I never intended doing a solo record. So I was just writing music that I like, it's something I would want to hear. So that's why you're getting jazz fusion. You're getting funk. You're getting even a Celtic song on there. I read it darkness darkness that came out 69. There's two covers and the Bjork cover. That's kind of why the record has such a diverse feel to it. Once I had five songs kind of done, and I did, I did the video for army of me with a 3d guy that does 3d graphic design. I mean, Drew Lanius. Then I said, You know what, I think I got something here. And I started taking it around. And Brian Pereira, who I'd known a long time at Cleopatra. I thought it was great. So he signed it. So it gave it some legitimacy to that and we just thrown up some YouTubes or whatever. And then I finished it off. And I have 41 great friends and musicians on the record total. I just did a head count. I thought it was 30 something but then I went Wait a minute. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. He's doing percussion. Oh, so it's, yeah, it's 41 people total?

Chuck Shute: 21:53

Yeah. It's a very, it's like a musician's kind of album like, this isn't for people who just casual music listeners, I don't think they're gonna enjoy it. I don't think they're gonna get it. It's very sophisticated and more complex, which good for you? Because I think my audience are music fans. So they're going to be, I think there'll be able to appreciate it.

Chuck Wright: 22:12

Yeah. If you like bands like Pink Floyd, maybe you would take a lot of what I'm doing on here. And one of my songs, which is my new single called throwing stones. Yeah,

Chuck Shute: 22:21

I love that one. It was these dice.

Chuck Wright: 22:23

I don't know if you saw the video, but it was. It was compared to imagine somebody did a review. They said, it's kind of like if if Primus and Stevie Wonder got together. And I went, wow, that's interesting. Because if you watch what I'm doing playing, and the the funkiness of it, and Joe Retta vocalign, it's incredibly, you know, like Stevie Wonder, just the blue, I mean, r&b style, he actually wrote the Lyric, and the vocals for the song for the music, which was an anti war message, which he wrote before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. So when I was making the video for the song, and he couldn't be in here, so you'll see him in a TV screen. I felt I should incorporate what was going on in the world right now that with Ukraine invasion, so there's some of those elements in that video. But it's basically the message in that song that he wrote is, as humans, we started throwing rocks at each other throwing stones. And now we're launching missiles at each other. So how much longer until we learn that this is not the way? No Love is the answer. That's basically the message in that song.

Chuck Shute: 23:29

Yeah, I mean, it's a good point. Because even if we're not throwing missiles, I mean, the stones are, or it's not doing good things for the world, either. There's a lot of the stuff thrown on Twitter, and just everywhere in the world. It's kind of like, that's

Chuck Wright: 23:42

a good, that's a good analogy. I mean, there's so much hate, hate speak, and hate stuff people have people have a platform that maybe they have some inner angers about whatever chip on their shoulder, and they look at Oh, I can be anonymous to just, you know, shred, there's, I'm not gonna say their name, but there's a certain webzine that no matter what you put up there, there's going to be a long line of guys that are just sitting waiting. So they can try it out trash, you know, whoever it is each other. So it's the same guys or guys that are never successful. Musicians usually, are trash and guys that have actually done stuff. It's always just look them up now. And it's like, Oh, I

Chuck Shute: 24:20

know. It's like, it's funny What's like when I get a negative comment on YouTube, and I always click to see, I click on their YouTube and they have like two subscribers. I'm like, You're trashing me, I've got more subscribers than you like, somebody had like, 10,000 subscribers, and they gave me some critical feedback. Hey, I'd love to hear it. But

Chuck Wright: 24:37

yeah, well, it's yeah, it's I guess the point is, I which I think your analogy about throwing stones being hates hate speak or whatever online. It's just everybody has a platform now. You know, it's like, whoever it is. They could get online and just started going off. You know, that's, that's the problem with Twitter. Right?

Chuck Shute: 24:57

Well, not only that, but with the L The rhythm, the craziest wildest ideas from all over the, you know, every kind of direction they get go to the top of the algorithm, right? Because they're gonna get the most interaction pillow. What are you we are think that you're crazy. It's, if I just say like, Hey, like and I think I tweeted something yesterday said, you know, if people could be kinder to each other what is that an idea? Like instead of trying to convince everybody like of your ideas, what if people just tried to listen and be kind, nobody cared about that. But I got like three likes

Chuck Wright: 25:30

a lot of empathy. I know, nobody cares. And I've noticed like, I've done a couple of these. And they'll cherry pick a sentence out of the entire hour that you're speaking, and then that will be their headline, you know, so and so says that, you know, the virus is fake. And that wasn't what the whole content of it was. That was just one line in it. About them talking about I heard this about karma. And I guess, somebody took just one line out of his, his, his podcast and turned it into a whole. You know what, he's getting all this hate mail. You know, so you got

Chuck Shute: 26:06

to know people want to take the shortcuts and they don't if they actually because I happened to me a lot of times to where I'll have a podcast, and then Yeah, they'll take like a sound bite, but I'm like, listen to the full interview, and then decide what you know, before you make a judgement.

Chuck Wright: 26:20

Well, that's the thing that's theirs. That's another thing people can be judges now everywhere. Everybody's judging somebody else instead of trying to support you know, and something I tried to do personally, I run an event called Ultimate jam night, which I started in 2015. Yeah, we've been at the legendary Whisky a Go Go now for many years. And what I tried to do is just put a bunch of musicians together. And we usually have a theme every week, and it's between, you know, 45, maybe two, we've had as many as 100 professional musicians, from the show and coordinating all that is, it's like herding cats. But seeing it, seeing the performances and people getting to play together that maybe never played together and wanting to play together or taking somebody that's a really new player who's great at putting them with seasoned pros. It's always a very rewarding experience to see that happen. And when you can make that happen.

Chuck Shute: 27:15

Yeah, you've had some, I mean, what will you tell me? What are the your favorite guests that have come to that? Because I mean, what, seven years that you must have had some stellar musicians.

Chuck Wright: 27:25

We Well, you know, what stands out for me, I guess if I have to pick one is Robin Zander was there from cheap trick. Yeah, from cheap trick. And at the time we started ultimate jam night was basically at a venue that was partially, it had a nice stage on that, but it's partially bowling out, right? And he's backstage and I'm talking with him. We're friends because I turned the cheap trick in the 80s. And he gets a phone call and he goes, what, really? No way. And he finishes the call. And he goes, I can't believe this. He goes, we were just nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And he goes, you know, what's even weirder about that is we got signed to play in a bowling alley and I'm going to frickin bowling. What Yeah, so he came out and what's his name was there. You know, from from headbangers ball, Ricky Rockman. Oh, Ricky raccoons. There. He goes, Hey, let me tell the story. Let me tell the story. And I go, Sure, man. So Ricky goes out there and starts talking and telling the whole story that happened backstage. And then Ron came out and did dream police with us, which was great. There's actually a video up there, but we've had D Snyder, we've had the Motorhead guys we've had, like, Doug Pinnick is a regular that comes down from Kings. Actually, no.

Chuck Shute: 28:38

Oh, I love Do you ever talk to him? I had him on my podcast. It was like an hour and a half. And I want I didn't want it to end.

Chuck Wright: 28:43

Yeah, he's a sweetheart, man. He's a great guy, great player, great songwriter. Really sweet man. And, you know, it's just, I've been blessed in that. And through that, making this album, I you know, I would be working on a song and, you know, who'd be great for this. Let me see if he's into it. And I say, Hey, check it out. I'm

Unknown: 29:03

working on the song.

Chuck Wright: 29:05

I think, you know, if you did a solo on this would be great. And I you know, and they're into it, you know, like Scotty Hill from Skid Row. It's like, killer solo for the song. It's just, I, I got to cherry pick, so to speak, you know, like the, the right guy for and they were luckily for me, everybody that I said, Hey, do you want to check this out? Do it. They said, Yeah, this is great on.

Chuck Shute: 29:27

It's called really? Everyone said yes. Yeah.

Chuck Wright: 29:29

I never had anybody go. No. Everybody's like, Oh, this is great. Yeah, I'd love to do it. You know.

Chuck Shute: 29:34

Wow. That's really cool. Yeah. So tell me back to the so it's kind of like a combo thing here because the song throwing stones. It's kind of reflective of the war right now. But didn't you do something with the jam night where you had Ukrainian refugee refugees?

Chuck Wright: 29:50

That all happen to pretty much the same time because just just a few weeks back? I think it's like three weeks maybe now. We did a benefit for the world central bank. Richard, for the refugees coming out of Ukraine because of the war, and we raised a lot of money to send them to, you know, help with the food there. And we did have a family that had just left Ukraine. They were bombed out, they came out on stage and their little seven year old daughter saying, a verse and of course, we are the world that everybody's crying. It was pretty crazy. And we did have one Ukrainian girls sing traditional song in the beginning. And we also, I wanted to open up the show with Greg gate of Kyiv, the resource key piece, instrumental thing, and then the band came straight in from that. Yeah, that's really cool. Well, we, you know, over the years, we've done a few charity events. So we did one for the Pulse nightclub thing that happened when you know, all these people were shot in the club. And we brought some people out from that and tried to get money for them different things. We've done food drives for Los Angeles for the homeless. Once in a while, we'll do charity events.

Chuck Shute: 31:05

That's awesome. I love that. Yeah, I always end each episode with a charity. So I'm always trying to like, it's just like something that you know, if we can all just pitch in a little bit, I think.

Chuck Wright: 31:13

Well, yeah. Like you were saying about your comment on Twitter. I think we're all these more empathy.

Chuck Shute: 31:20

Yeah, I kind of just some of the tweets, even though there's things that people post, and I might even agree with it. But I'm like, What is the point of posting this on Twitter? I don't really understand. Like some things you used to just keep to yourself, you know, like, you might think something but you don't.

Chuck Wright: 31:34

I think people put put too much personal information on there. I actually, yeah, I mean, it's, it's, I don't want to know that you're having stomach trouble today. And you're visiting the bathroom every five minutes. I don't need to do that.

Chuck Shute: 31:48

Right. Yeah. Yeah, it is. You're right. It's like too much information. Like sometimes I just go okay. Like, and then Facebook, you're friends with all these people. And it's like, and then but it's like too much of them. Why do I need to know what the kid that I had biology class with in high school is having for lunch today? Like what?

Chuck Wright: 32:04

Yeah, they tell you how the weather was. I have one that always goes out. We're having a beautiful day today. It's only 75. Okay, you know, I know, there, you lose a lot of time with some of that. But you know, it has facilitated keeping in touch with, like, the first guitar player in my first band. I'm, I'm in touch with now heads up importantly, now, we still talked because of Facebook, we found each right. And that's happened with a lot of people that will be found each other again, through Facebook. So in that regard, it's good. I wish it was around when my mom was alive because she lived in the valley and I would be able to share what I'm doing all the time with her. And so it's it's it's a double edged sword. Right. You know, it's good and bad. High Technology is good and bad. It's got it depends on how it's used.

Chuck Shute: 32:51

Yeah, no, that's absolutely right. Yeah, I feel like maybe we need to give people classes or something on how to because it was when they had it. They just said, Here you go. And it's like, they don't really teach people how to use it. And then I mean, especially kids, there's it can be really dangerous for kids. So I don't know,

Chuck Wright: 33:07

they can get sucked into all kinds of terrible things. If they're not, you know, that's why you gotta have those parental guidance and a lot of parents don't even pay attention to what their kids doing.

Chuck Shute: 33:15

Ya know? It's It's scary. All right. Well, yeah. Anyways, back to the album. You know, there's so many good songs. Yeah, sorry. I know we have a REIT where there's a reason we just keep keep getting sidetracked. But it's

Chuck Wright: 33:26

family. That's conversations are always like that. Sorry. Yeah.

Chuck Shute: 33:29

No, but the song the other side. I listened to that a few times. It's really beautiful. And you wrote that song, obviously, as a tribute to Frankie, well read drummer who passed away. Well, like, didn't you write it immediately after you got the call?

Chuck Wright: 33:45

Yeah, actually, that's how that happened was was I got the call that he I knew he was going to I mean, my last conversation with him it was, I kind of wish I didn't have that conversation, because it was just terrible seeing him in that condition. But because it was a FaceTime thing. And it was just anyway, so I got the call that he had passed. And it just went, wow, you know, because I've known we started planning in 1981 26 years of my life playing with and off and on with crime, right. But anyway, so I picked up but right next to me was a 12 string, acoustic and I just started playing with that feeling. And that whole song from top to bottom, even the bridge, every part of it even the course melody and course idea. See you on the other side all happened in one city, like in an hour and a half or whatever it was, I was just going oh, this is nice and just kind of feeling that whole thing. And I after I finished it recorded the guitar and I put some bass on I got a hold of Agus Zhang who had been working with Frankie and zap band. And I said, Hey, I'd really like you to finish this with me and he, he helped me out, flesh out the verses on it and I also reached out to Joe Pelletier was the keyboard player with the band Frankie was working with. And Mr. Jimmy himself is the band. They're called Mr. Jimmy he. I just saw them. Before Frankie passed, I went to the rehearsal, I was in Tokyo, and they were hosting them for some big concerts there. And I just felt I wanted to include them in that, but I really that song, it, it. It wasn't smart. I mean, that's we're gonna say us inspired. But it started because of the bad news about Frankie. But it really relates to everybody I've lost along the way. And I'm sure when people listen to it, they'll feel the same way. Because it's we hope, and we see them on the other side,

Chuck Shute: 35:39

right? Well, that's what's the cobalt this album's like that song, and then the, you know, the one that's kind of about war. It's like, it must be cathartic for you to write these. But it can also be cathartic for people to listen to this,

Chuck Wright: 35:51

I hope that people get, you know, a different emotions out of listening to the record. And listening to the lyrics. There's a song called given up the ghost on the mountain. That's one of my favorite songs, just as a song was written. And it's basically just about, there's a time to let things go, you know, people hold on to things that are holding them back. It's time to let things go like a relationship. It's basically about that. It's like, okay, so you broke up and you're not together anymore, but you keep holding on and because you're holding on emotionally, you can't be open to something new. So that's, that's what that song is about.

Chuck Shute: 36:26

How do you know when it's time to let go, though, because you got to have some sort of period of grieving, I would think I do

Chuck Wright: 36:31

know, there's no doubt but there I know, people, you know, one person comes to mind backstage, who it is, but for three years now, she's still holding on to, you know, the, the, the hurt and the pain of of a breakup of a situation changing. It's like, that's why it's, there's time to give up the ghost, you know?

Chuck Shute: 36:52

No, that's that's, that's really good. I know. That's what that song was about. That's why I like doing these interviews. That's really cool. That's about Yeah, that one and then the the farewelled horizon. Those are those are definitely like kind of like the lights could like I said, that somber kind of like dark

Chuck Wright: 37:07

mode that was somber and dark, too. But I wrote that that's the only song on the album. I started writing on my bass. It's like a nine or it's on my bass. I overdubbed another bass to it. Then I played acoustic guitar to it. And then I contacted my friend Toshi Nagi. who you might know if you've ever seen the Jimmy Kimmel show, he's the house guitar player. Oh, that show. And he's one of the most well rounded musicians that I know. And he's an amazing jazz fusion player. And I said to him, I said i kotoba I've got this kind of jazz fusion song that I'd like to finish with you know, would you be interested in finishing it with me? I go, what I'm looking for is like a Jeff Beck style melody and then I want you to do some shredding like Allan Holdsworth. And, and he, he sent me back something that I thought was just so beautiful. And then on the bridge, I wanted to pay homage to one of my favorite bands when I was a kid which is King Crimson. So the bridge sounds like straight out 1970 King Crimson Crimson King album, I've got baritone sax. I've got Mellotron and all that on it. In fact, when I was in high school, my English class I did a report on the song 21st century Schizoid man, my teacher flipped out so much he made that class listen to the whole out. Because the lyrics on that album are amazing. English class sits up at about poetry, and poetry and music. You know, someone would bring an American Pie and I brought in 21st century Schizoid man so that's where my head was at.

Chuck Shute: 38:33

Yeah, how do you so how do you because you're right you obviously wrote most of the songs are co wrote them, but how do you write when I started? And then maybe I finished them off with people? Yeah. Okay, so like, when you're writing lyrics, how do you does it just come to you like the music? Or is it do you have to sit down try to rhyme stuff or? Well,

Chuck Wright: 38:48

there definitely is a rhyming scheme to it. And then you've got to think about well, what's gonna sound right. Sometimes the way sentence sounds is more important than what is being said. I remember reading that film to Phil Collins, I think interview and he said he goes Yes, sometimes the way things come off in the melody is more important than the actual word. And so you kind of have to walk the line between that and the importance of the word so that it covered some good but still carries same message. So what does that mean?

Chuck Shute: 39:25

All right, like I was gonna say, what is that? It sounds like somebody's they just kind of make words up to make it sound

Chuck Wright: 39:30

that song definitely. I think that's it that has been anyway, but yeah, there's there's a line you walk when you're writing lyrics. On that I worked on the album. Three songs have a vocalist named Whitney tie,

Chuck Shute: 39:43

who Yeah, she's great.

Chuck Wright: 39:45

She's phenomenal. I discovered her I joined ultimate Gemini. And when I decided to finish the Song army with me, which was actually recorded quite a while ago, on a lark I was in the studio with with my late friend at tour. Repeat for Mr. Big. And Landon Cordova who worked with me and House of Lords in many other projects. We started jamming on it. I mean, I'm not playing a great bass part, we're just doing it by memory. And I found the tracks and I thought this is killer. I gotta finish this. I gotta, you know, also to honor Pat, you know, it's really great. And I thought of her as the perfect voice for it. And through that, we started working together and we wrote a song Time waits for no one. I came up with all the music, and I said, Hey, you want to help me finish the song out. And then I thought she was the perfect voice for given up the ghost as well. So she ended up being on three songs. super talented. She's got her own album that came out last year called apogee. That is killer. And she's working on a new music now, which I'm going to be doing some bass for her

Chuck Shute: 40:45

on. Oh, nice. Yeah. And then the other song that was really cool. That's totally different than anything else is the cradle of the sun because it's kind of kind of like a country blues guitar on

Chuck Wright: 40:54

it. Yeah. What what it is it's it's I don't know, that song almost didn't get on the record because it was so different. But it's a lot like a water plant. Alison Krauss song. I don't know if you're familiar with with his side thing that he does with a little bit. Yeah, it's kind of that foci Yes. And you know, and he actually does some discipline to to that focus time. So I have I have some lap on lap steel on there. You know, which, which really gives that kind of sound and I went for more of a gospel type chorus with a lot of voices. And I it's actually a duet, a shellac. Renee has just great tone in her voice. She sang with Agus young, the person the guy talked about earlier, from the zip thing. Well, it's kind of like a rubber plants on it. I'm going to tap into the guy that's playing right. He's a great singer, and he has kind of that vibe. So I kind of went for that with that song. But yes, I'm glad you pointed that one out. It's it almost didn't I almost I was on the fence.

Chuck Shute: 41:53

No, I like it. Because like I said, you know, there's definitely some dark and somber tones. But I mean, there's a variety to like, I think the the throwing stones I mean, I think if people who know you, that's probably a good one to start out with because it's just a great rockin song. And if they're familiar with, you know, hard rock, they're gonna love that.

Chuck Wright: 42:09

Yeah, I think so too. And that's why I wanted to do that as my second video. After I got the deal, because the first one I did on my own this one, I really thought about it, what songs really getting like hit people and all the hard rock fans out there are gonna still dig it, you know, instead of coming out with like, given up the ghost or something like that. I wanted to hit him with something that shows off my plane as a bass player. And just as a kick ass truck. Yeah, no, that was great. But I got chills vocal. I was so blown away. I go, Oh, my God, I got this. It's got to be out there. You know?

Chuck Shute: 42:43

Yeah. I heard you say that. Like you would need like Roger Waters budget to pull this off as a live show. But I mean, could you scale it down? And do just like some select? Well,

Chuck Wright: 42:55

yeah, you know, that's come up a lot. The last starting to do all these interviews is about well, what do you want how you do like, truly, to do what I would want to do, I would need, you know, like, I just saw Paul McCartney. That's, that's what I would want to do and have an immersive trip with screens and tell a story and have it be a total experience like, say Pink Floyd or something. But in lieu of that, I could stream it down and do a couple songs off of this I could do some songs from other projects I've done like I've met outcasts is poetry, Heaven Earth, maybe because those are all albums that I was a writer on. And I didn't know if anything, even though I was a writer IQR three on every song I don't know if anything fits with this music with the choir writes stuff, but there are songs and music that I've written that from my catalogue that could work in a more of a string down thing, but I mean, you can hear it I have like acoustic guitars on both songs which I wrote most of the songs on acoustic guitar so I'm playing acoustic guitar. Most of the songs besides the bass and I do some keyboards on there and sound effects and you know, because I produced the thing I had some help co producing on a few of the tracks. Yeah,

Chuck Shute: 44:05

but no, I like it. Yeah, it reminds me I just had Edgar Winter on and like how he kind of Yeah, he put together this like a meet his Edgar Winter group. He put together this like amazing, even though he really wasn't the frontman. Right? Like he had this other guy Dan Hartman singer, but he danced mountain. And yeah, he'd been like I was thinking like, you could do the same kind of thing just put together a band and make it the chuck right band and yeah, really cool. I got

Chuck Wright: 44:29

exactly I would need I would need well to do it. I would want to have Joe for sure. And and, and Whitney on it. Jeff Scott Soto killed the track. He did. It never fails. But that guy is so prolific and working so much. I mean, he's got 20 things go on at the same time. You know, he's, he's a good friend, and I'm so proud of him. The guy is just and he's he can do any style and when the song is a funk song, and I know that I went to a Terran strength card Garbi I can't remember. Anyway, I went to this concert and it was an r&b guy. And Jeff was singing along to every word of every song, soulful singing, and he's a great r&b type singer, and the song needed that kind of vocal and he just killed it.

Chuck Shute: 45:18

It's amazing that yeah, he's, he sounds so good. And he still sounds so good. Like he hasn't his voice hasn't degraded over time.

Chuck Wright: 45:26

Yeah, yeah. He's strong, stronger than ever, really. I mean, and he's a really good songwriter, and always surrounds himself with great musicians. And it always is doing a bunch of different things. Yeah. I mean, the sons of Apollo look at the musicians and cheese.

Chuck Shute: 45:42

Yeah, no, I had bumblefoot on the show. That guy's crazy.

Chuck Wright: 45:46

Yeah, he sings good, too. Yeah. Yeah, he's great. I chatted with him once in Connecticut. I think I was on tour. He came out jam. Really nice guy.

Chuck Shute: 45:55

Yeah. So then what are your if you're not going to tour with this project? Do you have another project that you're going to be working on? Oh,

Chuck Wright: 46:02

what I'm doing right now is, I'm still doing ultimate Gemini. And I put this week I'm putting together the Bretton Rock Show, which I decided to make that part one, because there's so many amazing acts that have come out of out of UK. It's insane. It's like page after page and they're all worthy and awesome. But I've also been working with Greg D'Angelo, who was a founding member of white lion. Yeah. And Terry loose, who sang with great white for like, 12 years, I think an XYZ, right? Yeah, XYZ is his other band. And, and another another friend of mine, Kevin Jones, who played keyboards with Ozzy, and when Randy was in the band, there's a lot of movie stuff. He's in it. And we've been bouncing with different guitar players, but I, I've been jamming with those guys and doing shows with those guys. out of the country. We're gone for like, five weeks and we're playing on the 26th. in Palm Springs, we're doing a concert. Okay. What we do is we do songs that were connected to, you know, in or influenced by a lot, but mainly it's like, like, what do radar love from white line? Yeah, you know, that version, or once bitten twice shy? by a great white version, you know?

Chuck Shute: 47:14

What is this band called?

Chuck Wright: 47:15

It's called legends of classic rock. Oh, yeah. Okay. Because the artists I mean, they had the name already, but I, when I say it's like, I don't think I'm a legend. They don't think they're legend. But we've been very blessed to be in legendary bands or work with legendary artists like Alice Cooper. I've worked with like Greg almond, for instance. So so there are some legendary people that we've been associated with. So that's that's how the name works. All although you could also look at it like, legendary classic rock that we're playing artists that are legends of classic rock, you know, besides our involvement, so it depends on how you look at it. Right on van I'm having a great time to great guys. And, you know, like, I'm open, you know, to to other situations if that comes up.

Chuck Shute: 47:59

Yeah. Well, and obviously, I mean, one of the bands that you're most well known for is quiet riot. It was funny, I was looking up class trying to find something like trivia or something. You know what I was interesting with the you guys did I think I think you're a part of this. When you were on The Simpsons, you got animated. Was that? Is that? Is that when you were in the band?

Chuck Wright: 48:19

Yeah, it's actually and they had me when I had blonde to share is a character. Yeah, Kevin taught me that going blonde, back back. Back then, and, and kind of curling my hair, whatever, which I wish I didn't do but anyway. Yeah. And the premise of that sentence is so funny because the band's known for playing state fairs, which we did do a lot and have to look, but but the band had they said, here's

Unknown: 48:44

here's a band formerly known as quiet, right? They got religion now. It's

Chuck Shute: 48:47

quiet, pious, or no pious Ryan Ryan, I think yes. Right.

Chuck Wright: 48:51

And then the band breaks into the song and this is what they sang. Like, come on, feel the Lord. Save, save, save sound and just like that, and the fact that they came up with that lyric was hilarious.

Chuck Shute: 49:05

Was it you guys singing though? Or no, no, no,

Chuck Wright: 49:07

they it was a cartoon voices doing that. Are i right? You sound like old pirates. Okay. Yeah, it's pretty funny. Ya know, I didn't even know that they were doing it until it aired, you know,

Chuck Shute: 49:18

you don't get like a royalty or anything for that

Chuck Wright: 49:20

or no,

Chuck Shute: 49:22

they call though that that your your animated,

Chuck Wright: 49:25

animated character, but they referenced that even had my EB three base. They had a and they they've added they've used the name before in other contexts where it's quite right, like thrown in with rap or other bands they've used before.

Chuck Shute: 49:41

Yeah, there was a bit that where they said like, please welcome poison and they're like, No, we're not poisoned. We're quiet. Right? And then like, the drummer says, the drum head said we're Whitesnake or something like Yeah.

Chuck Wright: 49:53

And the funny thing about that the underlying thing is that all these players are interchangeable. They probably all been put on those But you know what I mean? Because we're all you know, I mean, how many there's certain guys that have been in like, six different bands. jizzy Pearl is a good example. He was the lead singer of hey, la guns rat now quiet right. So, yeah, I mean, one of those interchangeable guys.

Chuck Shute: 50:17

Right? Yeah, I mean, that's it's interesting. These bands just keep quiet right still going. I mean, even though it's crazy, they got Rudy's Rudy's in and now he's the only original member

Chuck Wright: 50:29

Yeah, well, he's he's part of the Mental Health era, the beginning of it, I'm on that album too. I played bang your head and don't want to let you go and I sing on every track on it. And every every track of the condition critical because they wanted the same sound and I played bass on a song on condition critical called Born to rock and the bass player amount as well. But yeah, it's it. That's the era I always try to explain to people that the Randy Rhoads quiet riot and the mental health card right are two completely different things. In fact, the label one to call the head a name for the band it was to bro is how we got signed. Originally, it was the Dobro ban. But they didn't want to name it after Kevin row. So they were throwing names at us like standing Hampton, and wild Oscar and all these like ridiculous names and Kevin was forget I'm just gonna call it quiet right again. So that sounds gonna happen. When people disband the mental health ban for not being original members, because they're not part of the rain roads era, that ban had really nothing to do with with this band other than the name and the fact that it was just Kevin's voice but musically if you listen to that early prior write records and the new ones it has nothing to do musically even. I mean that that band was way more pop hard

Chuck Shute: 51:46

at all. Yeah, cuz I think those albums were only released in the first two are only in Japan, right? Yeah, they're only in Japan. Yeah. Which is really weird to think they were American band and they couldn't get a deal in America, but got it.

Chuck Wright: 51:58

Yeah, well, yeah, it is weird. So that's where you know, situation is weird. I don't know if you saw the movie. Yeah, there's no way back. There was on Showtime for two years. But that kind of tells the whole story. Pretty pretty well, and it's it's very entertaining film.

Chuck Shute: 52:13

Yeah, I think what's interesting, you brought the background vocals because I feel like that's a really underrated job is that I mean, like the the thing that or the person that stands out to me is Michael Anthony.

Chuck Wright: 52:24

Van Halen sound songs without Michael Anthony's voice. Yeah, it's such a signature sound. As soon as he starts singing that's the sound. Right? Right. Well, that's why they wanted to keep me even when they did terrified. The terrified album when when they had Kenny Hillary, they had me come down for that insane. And then I rejoined them again after Kenny left the band.

Chuck Shute: 52:46

Yeah, you've kind of been in and out. And

Chuck Wright: 52:48

I think five times maybe it's really over. Yeah, I mean, 26 years total of playing with them. But I started in 81. So, you know, I jafria House of Lords. A bunch of a bunch of other things. Alice Cooper that I've done. Ted Nugent. But yeah,

Chuck Shute: 53:11

Ted Nugent. And I had him on the show. He's so he's really entertaining. He's out there. But he's super like energetics and was like He reminds me. I know, like, politically they're different. But him and Dee Snider. They just have this like, this energy that it's like.

Chuck Wright: 53:25

He's like that all the time. Yeah, I believe. I mean, it's a natural energy. It's not like drug induced.

Chuck Shute: 53:32

Yeah. Well, no, yeah. He doesn't do drugs. And he's like, in his 70s or something.

Chuck Wright: 53:35

He was like, super hyper man. Super. Yeah. I'll never forget working on that album. It's called and I love the title. If you can't lick lick him, right, which is a great title. But we will take a break and shoot hoops and he would go out there and he had a full scale deer target made that he put in the bushes and he'd go all the way to the other side. It was Botero. In fact, that shoot that's how he

Chuck Shute: 54:00

relaxes he shot a bone err on the podcast on Zoom. Cabin.

Chuck Wright: 54:05

Yes, yeah. Yeah, there you go. He had a stack of Polaroids of animals. You know that he goes well, you know, whenever I kill I eat so but he's like Iran's heads holding up and he's got like all these kind of it's great. I imagine his wall just being covered with Huskies beers and bears and whatever. I don't know. I only did that on with him. That's my whole connection only

Chuck Shute: 54:30

did you why did you tour with him

Chuck Wright: 54:31

though? Or no, no, no, I did talk him into using fretless bass on the song No. He made me use a pic and I had my license plate says no pics.

Chuck Shute: 54:40

Oh really don't like the pics

Chuck Wright: 54:42

no man it's not feel fingers. This bass is meant to be played with your fingers for as far as I'm concerned. They're things do come up where pick for certain kinds of sound. But in general, it's it. Bass is a field instrument. You know?

Chuck Shute: 54:56

It's so the PA seems like that people I think is a Dave Ellefson from ag Get the use of pick. I feel like some of the speed metal guys actually he

Chuck Wright: 55:03

just did my show. We did a show called the Big Four with anthrax. And Megadeth. We had you know, Dave was there and and Jeff Young was there from Megadeth. They played together for the first time in what 35 years or whatever it was. Wow thing ultimate Jana does is we put people together. I have two guys that did the thriller tour. Greg Ryan bumblefoot Jackson, Michael Jackson thriller tour, and they had played together since then I put them together. Gonna go hey, you guys want to play? It's like, yeah, man. It'll be great. So yeah, know that. Yeah. But Dave, he was playing with a pick. I mean, some guys do. For me. It's it's a it's a field thing. But I actually always at shows asked if I have guitar picks, and I said, Did you watch me play? Did you see me as a pick? No, but do you have any? So finally I broke down. I have picks to say I don't use it.

Chuck Shute: 55:54

Yeah, cuz I always throw him into the stage. And people are, ya

Chuck Wright: 55:57

know, I can hand them out. I mean, one of the things that I always tried to do after shows, you know, meet and greets or not. I like to go out meet people like after the show and talk to them. And, and, you know, a lot of times I'll find out the first time they ever listened to a song.

Unknown: 56:10

Oh, yeah, man. At first. My first album ever was I heard come on Illinois or whatever.

Chuck Wright: 56:15

I lost my virginity in the back of my car, listening to your album, whatever they say, you know, it's kind of funny. My mom made me proud. That album. Sad is funny. Yeah, you know, it's interesting to find out and when, especially with his younger kids, they're, they're usually into it because their parents were into it, or they discovered it on on a video game. You know, like guitar was guitar video game Guitar Hero and stuff like our hero. A lot of those. So that's how they discovered the band. It's like, it'd be discovered in different ways. You know, maybe just perusing YouTube and you see the wild the young video and we're, we're like putting guitars into a tree mulcher? So suddenly you're interested in the band?

Chuck Shute: 56:57

Or maybe what's going to happen is like, somebody comes out and makes a remix like a rap song and samples a song that you've done.

Chuck Wright: 57:05

That can happen. Yeah, yeah.

Chuck Shute: 57:07

I it's funny because I heard the Yardbirds that one of their songs was was like, redone by the Pussycat Dolls, like 30 or 40 years later, and it's like, the guy gets this royalty check. Like it's got to be a kind of a nice little thing for musician.

Chuck Wright: 57:20

Well, it must be especially for for Slade. I mean, come on, feel the noises and Slade song and St. Louis. So as Mom, we're all crazy. Now. Those are both really big songs for choir. Right? So it's like, yeah,

Chuck Shute: 57:32

you can play on mama. We're all crazy, though. Right? You just saying? Yeah, sure. You get some sort of royalty for that.

Chuck Wright: 57:40

Very, there's a thing called SoundExchange. And as a background, saying it's totally anything but yeah, I mean, do you

Chuck Shute: 57:47

get like a big sheet like once a month that shows everything like, because you've done so many albums and things like I don't I

Chuck Wright: 57:53

wish I did. I'm sure there's a lot. I don't know. You know, what, you don't get any hard to track it all down? You know, really, it really is. Yeah, thank thank goodness is there's a thing called SoundExchange. And, and they track down your extraterrestrial, they call it which is anything that's not like a radio station. But like stuff that's like on a cable show on cable TV, some that kind of thing or Sirius radio, or anything like that. They they track, they track down the money for you. And that's a library to government thing, which is a great government program, or the Library of Congress has that. And that's actually that's how I got my car. It's been a good thing that part's good, you know, as a performer because it's about performance has nothing to songwriting. It's about your performance on on something.

Chuck Shute: 58:42

Wait, so you don't get like a check every month, just from all the royalties combined?

Chuck Wright: 58:47

Well, you get you get royalties from different things. Yeah. It's all broken down to like, whatever bands and songs and yeah, yeah, yeah, a lot of music library stuff for movies and, and that kind of

Chuck Shute: 59:00

thing. So what's your number one when you get that? What's the number one thing right now that's like your best credit? That's the most it's really

Chuck Wright: 59:09

hard to say. I mean, I have to go look, you know, I don't really know. I mean, require my stuff and that your free stuff does well, I had I actually, there was instrumental that I wrote for music library. Sorry about situation. And they in Atlanta sports station that's on every night uses it going in and out of their show. And nice only played like, a few seconds, really, you know, like maybe five or six seconds, going in and out. You get like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, and it's been going on for like years. Okay, so that can be it can be great. You can I'm sure the guy that wrote the theme too. You know, like, if you write a theme for TV show, that still runs all the time. Yeah, in the beginning, you're gonna be getting that major checks?

Chuck Shute: 1:00:01

For sure. Yeah, no, that's awesome. Well, very cool. And hopefully this like I said, this new album will get you some play somewhere. Because like I said, I think a lot of songs lend themselves to TV and film. I could totally picture it.

Chuck Wright: 1:00:13

Yeah, the the label, they felt that way too. And they have they have people that that's what they do is they get songs placed. And I agree with you. I think a lot of this music on here is perfect for it's a cinematic feeling record. But I think when you listen to it, top to bottom, it's really deep. It has a lot of layers to it. You know, and it's not saying well, the one thing I'm proud to say this isn't the same old, same old that I keep hearing, unfortunately. But it's I think it's kind of fresh. And I hope people feel the same way about it when they listen to it.

Chuck Shute: 1:00:43

Yeah, it's called Sheltering Sky. It's going to be out tomorrow, which so probably when people are listening, listening, it's probably already out. Yeah, good. It's out. Yeah. Oh, go by, they can buy it like it. Can they buy a physical CD?

Unknown: 1:00:57

It's right there. There it is

Chuck Wright: 1:01:01

covered by Glenn Wexler, who's done rush and to Van Halen covers and, and Black Sabbath and holist. He's one of the best in the business, and he's my best friend. And he said, Hey, I'd love to do your CD package for you. And I, that's how that that's how that happened. I'm like, I'm blessed to have all these great musicians on my record, and then, you know, this too, but you could get it. If you go to Chuck white.com There's a link where you can get it, it's gonna be on all the regular platforms. Click Cleopatra. records.com has has a link you can go to. It's there, you can get it. You know, I advise people get get the hardcopy, you got you have lists of who's on each track. Which is, like I said, there's 41 different people. You want to know who's doing what, right. So check that out.

Chuck Shute: 1:01:49

Yeah, I love that kind of stuff. Yeah, cuz I got the advanced copy. So I can see I'm reading all the I'm like, Wow, this Scotty Hill and yeah, Derek Sherinian. And Troy Lucado. All these I know these names. So very cool. Awesome. Well, I always end each episode with a charity, like I said, so is there one that you want to give a shout out to here?

Chuck Wright: 1:02:07

Yes. Once again, the world central kitchen, which supplies meals for the the people in Ukraine that have been bombed out of their homes, you know, and are being executed. It's a horrible situation there. And, and it's nice that I mean, it's great that there's somebody that just set up a whole thing to help those people eat because they are starving.

Chuck Shute: 1:02:32

Okay, it's just,

Chuck Wright: 1:02:33

I mean, they, they had McDonald's, they have everything we do. It's like, I can't believe it's it. We're like, we've gone back in time, eight years. It's like Nazi Germany all over it. You know, it's, it's really, it's really hard to watch. And I'm glad we're helping with sending them, you know, weapons or whatever they need to stave off them being taken over. But you know, it's not going great. Obviously, under if you watch the news, but world central kitchen, you can find them and donate there if you're going to donate something, because I know that that that money goes straight to providing meals.

Chuck Shute: 1:03:09

Okay, perfect. I love that. That's yeah, I mean, I think everyone deserves to eat. So definitely.

Chuck Wright: 1:03:15

Like, it's yeah, it's just everybody can

Chuck Shute: 1:03:18

get behind that. I love it. So I will put that in the notes along with your website. And people should get the new album and catch you on tour with legends of rock is that what those called? Right are the legends of classic rock? I think right? Yeah,

Chuck Wright: 1:03:29

we were playing around. I mean, I'm doing that. I'll be doing other things.

Chuck Shute: 1:03:33

Come to Phoenix come to a show and I go see legends a classic rock. That sounds amazing.

Chuck Wright: 1:03:37

Yeah, it's a good, it's fun. We do a lot of cool songs and Terry's a brilliant singer. I don't know if you've ever seen great write with him. But he's great singer.

Chuck Shute: 1:03:45

No, I haven't seen I've seen I only saw great white ones with it was with the Jack Russell. Yeah, he's now they have a new one. And Mitch Malloy.

Chuck Wright: 1:03:52

They have another guy, but he's, he's one of the best actors out there.

Chuck Shute: 1:03:57

Okay. Cool. Thanks so much. Nice. Shot. Nice to meet you. I'll see you on tour. All right. All right. Buh bye. Such a fun conversation with Chuck. Right. I want to thank him again, for coming on the show. And again, make sure to check out the new album. It's called Shelter and sky, check his website or follow him on social media for updates. You can do the same for me. And you can help us both out with likes, shares, comments on social media and YouTube. The more attention that things get on social media and YouTube with the comments and the likes on that stuff, the more people will see it. So let's give some positive things some attention, like this interview or Chuck's new album or some of the songs on YouTube that he's got going on. And if you've gotten any entertainment, or value from this podcast, I would love for you to give me a rating or review on Apple podcasts or Spotify or wherever you listen. I will be eternally grateful for that. And also make sure to subscribe to the show so you don't miss any future episodes. Thanks for listening. Have a great rest of your day. And remember to shoot for the moon