Ace Von Johnson (L.A. Guns guitarist)

Episode 93 - Guitarist Ace Von Johnson from L.A. Guns! Besides LA Guns Ace has also played with Faster Pussycat, Unwritten Law, Cheap Sex, The US bombs, The Generators and more. His current project Neon Coven is amazing and sounds like Depeche Mode meets Nine Inch Nails. We’ll talk about all this plus the Michael Jackson song he worked on,  aTiffany song, voiceover work for Netflix, horror movies, dogs and much more!

0:00:00 - Intro
0:01:03 - Horror Movies & Shows
0:07:28 - Metallica & The Misfits
0:10:30 - Being Bullied in School
0:15:20 - Singing & Playing Guitar in PBR
0:16:25 - Story of the Nickname "Ace"
0:21:01 - Charlie & The Valentine Killers
0:26:23 - Michael Jackson & James Murray
0:35:15 - 30 Seconds to Mars
0:35:35 - Lemmy Kilmister
0:37:10 - NEW Music From Faster Pussycat
0:41:40 - NEW L.A. Guns Music
0:43:10 - Two L.A. Guns Versions
0:45:15 - Neon Coven
0:48:05 - NEW Tiffany Song
0:48:50 - Song with Corey Taylor
0:50:50 - Voiceover Work
0:52:45 - Animated Show With Don Jamieson
0:55:01 - Danny Nordahl
0:59:13 - Relationship with People
1:02:05 - Dogs, Linda Blair & Rebecca Corey
1:04:51 - Pets & Pet Owners
1:10:15 - Wrap Up

Ace Von Johnson Website:
http://www.acevonjohnson.com/site/

Ace Von Johnson Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/acevonjohnson/

Best Friends Animal Society:
https://bestfriends.org

Stand Up for Pits:
https://standupforpits.us/

Linda Blair World Heart Foundation:
http://www.lindablairworldheart.org

Pinups for Pitbulls:
https://pinupsforpitbulls.org

Chuck Shute Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/chuck_shute/

Transcript

Chuck Shute: 0:14

Welcome to the show and thanks for checking us out. We got Ace Vaughn Johnson on deck today an ace. It's really interesting guy. He's got some great stories, and we talk a lot about everything really we discuss horror movies. voiceover work, he's done pit bulls. And of course a lot of music talk from all the bands that he's been a part of including la guns, faster pussycat unwritten law, and a new one he has called neon coven. That's really cool stuff. Plus, he tells the story of working on a Michael Jackson song. He also has a new song coming out with the pop star Tiffany. So that's exciting. And lots just lots of great stuff in this episode that I think if you're a fan of Ace, you're gonna love this and people who don't know who he is. You will become a fan after listening to this interview. So check it out. Welcome, Ace Vaughn Johnson to the show. We got a lot to talk about horror movies, music, voice acting pitbulls and so much more. So let's just dive right in. So you're ready?

Ace Von Johnson: 1:14

Yeah, let's do it.

Chuck Shute: 1:16

You don't sound as excited as I sound.

Ace Von Johnson: 1:21

I'll explain more off the record.

Chuck Shute: 1:23

Okay, fair enough. Fair enough. We'll we'll get I'll distract you. Whatever problems you're having. We're gonna have fun. That's gonna be a good time. So let's start at the beginning of your life. Your dad was like really into building dirt bikes and motorcycles. And so you had all that a lot of that growing up, but also, he got you into horror movies. So tell me about where you five is that how do I hear that? Right that that's when you started watching horror movies? Yeah,

Ace Von Johnson: 1:47

I mean, you know, when you're a kid or whatnot, hang on. I gotta take this collar off the dog because she is going to try to distract me through this whole process.

Chuck Shute: 1:54

Oh, yeah. I got my cat right here. I'm hoping he doesn't jump in front of the camera. But yeah, that's just the life we live with. With pets. pet owners. Yeah.

Ace Von Johnson: 2:03

Yeah, my dad. Wow...you know, your stuff. My dad told me I mean, you can kind of see some stuff behind me. Yeah, I just I just moved into a new house. So it's, it's only partially done here.

Chuck Shute: 2:16

Okay, but

Ace Von Johnson: 2:18

I moved in here and tried to get it decorated. But yeah, I'm a big an avid horror movie fan. And I got turned on to that, you know, the classics and stuff. And I was a kid because of my my dad and, and so grew up around motorcycle culture and horror movies. I mean, that was kind of

Chuck Shute: 2:34

So what are some of your favorite horror movies? Like back in the day? I mean, just all the classics like Friday the 13th and the slashes and stuff or

Ace Von Johnson: 2:42

why go by? I kind of go by like, arrow arrows. So okay, it was like the classics, you know, from like, late, I guess technically the late 20s through what I would say maybe like 1970. And then I would go from like, early 70s until like the turn of the century. And then I would go more contemporary, so I kind of split things up like that for me. I'm I do love me some slashers but I'm pretty particular. Like I'm not. I would I would prefer a good kick. Am I allowed to swear? Oh, yeah,

Chuck Shute: 3:17

fucking swear shit. Okay,

Ace Von Johnson: 3:19

did prefer good. I prefer good mindfuck Oh, mine.

Chuck Shute: 3:23

Yeah, totally. No gory

Ace Von Johnson: 3:25

stuff. But my favorite stuff is mostly, you know, the things from my childhood. So it's either stuff I was shown by my dad, like, I have an affinity for Vincent Price's work. So I have a lot of fond memories of you know, how some Haunted Hill House on wax House of Wax. The Fly returned to the fly that kind of stuff. And then getting into the sort of more 80s era. Not a lot of slashers although I'm a huge Nightmare on Elm Street fan. But more so stuff like creep show over the living dead. Yes. And you know, pretty much anything where you and I'm not sure your age, but I'm 38 so anything in the late 80s, early 90s where you were just attracted to the VHS box.

Chuck Shute: 4:10

Exactly. That's how I would pick them out two years ago this especially when you said creep shows like our member that that had the coolest cover. And like Tales from the Crypt. That show was really cool. similar kind of give her watch the black mirror. Have you seen that show on Netflix? Yeah,

Ace Von Johnson: 4:24

I have I got kind of lost halfway through the what was the sort of feature length version? They did?

Chuck Shute: 4:30

Oh, yeah, that wasn't as the the regular show was was brilliant. But yeah, some of the newer stuff that Yeah, the feature length was a little odd,

Ace Von Johnson: 4:38

but it was a bit it was a bit much but I love that show Black Mirror. I the only thing is I feel like a lot of the episodes are too close to home. They're just a little too

Chuck Shute: 4:47

scary stuff. Yeah.

Ace Von Johnson: 4:49

Yeah. You know, I mean, it's obviously meant to be sort of social commentary. And right. It definitely does. Its its job there.

Chuck Shute: 4:57

Mm hmm.

Ace Von Johnson: 4:58

But uh, I do like that. And I obviously have seen I believe every single episode of Tales from the Crypt, the HBO series. That's

Chuck Shute: 5:05

a great show. Yeah. Now is it true that your your cousin, Mark Lester, he's a movie director, he directed commando and Firestarter and some great movies.

Ace Von Johnson: 5:15

Yeah, that's, that is a fact. I was on he did. He directed a movie called class of 80 1984. Right. That's a was Michael J. Fox's first film. And, and so it became kind of a cult movie. And then there's a sequel called class of 1999 with Malcolm McDowell and who's in that like Vivica.

Chuck Shute: 5:37

You got to go on set for that one, right?

Ace Von Johnson: 5:39

Yeah, Stacy Keach is in it. It's that's cool kind of a who's who have called actors, and I was on set for that as a little boy. During one of the climactic scenes it's in the movies kind of a toss up between Blackboard jungle and Terminator. Okay, so there's a scene where this Android malevolent teacher robot thing is climbing up a fire escape after the heroine and I was on set for that. And I was probably like, seven or eight. And that's cool. It blew my mind and

Chuck Shute: 6:14

do the shit like scare you as a kid. Like, because I remember seeing Amityville Horror when I was like, I don't know eight or something. I was scared for like two years I couldn't sleep. I mean, that movie scared the shit out of me. It wasn't until like, I was 1314 that I could dive back into horror movies. Like I was too freaked out to watch them.

Ace Von Johnson: 6:30

I you know nothing. And I'll tell you I like I said, I've some stuff going on lately. That's definitely for off off. Record. But okay, it takes a lot. It takes a lot to scare me. And like I said, I think the mindfuck stuff is is what gets with me more than for sure. You know, some alien or Yeah,

Chuck Shute: 6:49

yeah. Right. Well, that's why an evil horse scared me so much. Because supposedly It was a true story. And so that was like, Oh,

Ace Von Johnson: 6:56

this is gonna happen to me. I've been to the Amityville house many time. There's a there's a venue there I think called the revolution and it's literally maybe four blocks from the Amityville house wayback club, maybe half a dozen times. And so I'm over there. Somebody inherently wants to go visit the Amityville house. So I've been over there. And they've, they've kind of tweaked it a little bit. It doesn't really look as the same as it obviously did in the 70s. Sure, sure. It's so cool to visit.

Chuck Shute: 7:26

Cool. Well, the other obviously big part of your life is music. And you didn't you didn't really get into music till you were about I don't know. I think it was you said nine or 10. Some your neighbor gave you the Metallica Black Album on cassette, which is also one of the first CDs that I owned that album and it was really good. But then this was cool because you kind of you liked Metallica. And so you went in got interested in their influences. And then you became this like big misfits fan, which is really

Ace Von Johnson: 7:50

cool. Huge, huge misfits fan you know, and there was this weird turning point, I was probably 12 cuz it was I know by 13 I like was to have the devil lock everything. Right, right. Look 11 or 12. And I was really into Metallica. And someone had you know, the blackout was like the biggest album of all fucking time, more or less sure, in the early 90s. couldn't escape them. Right. So circa 9094. I was 11. I would have turned 12 in December. So let's just say late 9495. Someone gave me for my birthday or whatever. A coffee table book on Metallica. I wish I still had an a nearly and it was if you think about that timeframe. The bulk of the photos were pre Black Album and

Unknown: 8:41

right almost

Ace Von Johnson: 8:42

every photo, someone was wearing a misfits t shirt totally. Yeah. Or or Kirk or cliff and I saw he had the same skull tattooed on him. And I was like, what, what is this and years later? I think it was Joe Strummer. From the clash. I remember this quote that I use all the time says listen to your favorite bands favorite band, right. And so I went to the record store and I picked up walk among us. And I remember having this like, you know, light bulb went off and I was like these song titles sound like they're about horror movies. And it was like this song's called Vampire The song's called skulls. This one's called. These are I think these are these some of these are named after movies. And I took it home and I was just sort of discovering punk rock might within that same year. Given my sister is about 13 years, my senior and she'd given me some Ramones and some, like the damned or something like that. And so I put it on. It was a familiar punk rock vibe. But they looked like kiss which I wasn't a fan of. right but they look scary and scary, good advice or whatever. And then all the songs were, you know, 72 seconds long, and about horror movies and it I just was like this is it. This As my band, I'm obsessed, and I saved up my allowance until like, every every month and I had to have every, every album, and I bind duplicates just because I didn't want the other neighborhood kids to have them. You know, it's like trying to like, Oh, you call that like, hoard, hoard but like, like, sanction this band because I just wanted it to be my own prior band. Sure.

Chuck Shute: 10:29

So did other kids when you're you got the the I don't know, what do you call that? The haircut? The Misfits haircut?

Unknown: 10:35

The devil law,

Chuck Shute: 10:35

the devil lock. Okay, so you got the devil lock and you're probably wearing misfits t shirts and shit. Or kids like bullying you? I think you did you say some of you got bullied a little bit from the jocks and like, how'd you handle that? Did you get into fights with them? Or do you just kind of let them push you around? Or,

Ace Von Johnson: 10:49

you know, okay, so I did. Okay, so I lived in Los Angeles, and I lived there until I was maybe 14, however old you are going into eighth grade. So 1313 Yeah. So I had sort of my little identity. By that point, I was listening to Metallica and I was kind of expanding beyond that. But then I was listening to whatever else I had discovered that I liked whether it was the Beastie Boys, or the Beach Boys, or mega def, or black flag, or the Eagles because my mom was a big Eagles fan. So I had this very eclectic music taste at an early age and even then, cuz a lot of the kids I knew were into, like, what was early 90s hip hop, like Dr. Dre and like, you know, Eazy E, just the kind of obvious stuff And sure, I even was listening to a lot of that which I still listen to. I just got a new killer stereo system here courtesy of one Tony higby. from Tom Kiefer. Oh, yeah, first thing I got to crank with the low end was a bunch of it was like the first Snoop Dogg record, you know, okay. Nice. So I liked what I liked, and nobody cared. But then I relocated to San Diego going in eighth grade. And it was it was clicky there was like the punk kids and the metal kids and the jocks and the this, and I had no friends. And I remember I showed up on my first day of school with a giant misfits shirt on. And I you know, everyone, you know, I don't want to say anything offensive, but they were calling me you know, the F word. You know, and I don't mean Fuck, you know it. And so, you know, just was, you know, kids are mean, man. Mm hmm. And, and I got picked on a little bit in eighth grade by a guy named Joe, who was like a kind of jock. I don't remember totally because his favorite band was unwritten law. Would you later

Chuck Shute: 12:42

joined?

Ace Von Johnson: 12:44

Yeah, so years later, I mean, I just remember that's fucking

Chuck Shute: 12:47

crazy. But Joe wasn't that bad. Joe was just like a bully

Ace Von Johnson: 12:51

jock kind of a jerk. Okay. And and then at some point in at that same year, and it's so funny because so much of this stuff has become like my, my circle of friends. But there was a compilation that came out and it was a misfits tribute album. I'm going way down the rabbit hole here. Oh, that is great. You had what was a lot of the sort of jock rock bands, okay, as we call it was like penny wise and no effects and the bouncing souls. And Greg the singer of the bouncing soldiers randomly texted me yesterday people I'm friends with and toured with Matt now, but so at some point, there was a turning point where the Misfits became cool with the sort of jock Sure, you know, like sort of not skaters, but the like, you know, the like sports guys. So no longer were they making fun of me for looking like I was a misfit superfan. They were kind of like, Oh, yeah, nice.

Chuck Shute: 13:44

misfits right

Unknown: 13:45

on, you

Ace Von Johnson: 13:45

know, but I still wasn't cool. And then I got into my, what does that freshman year high school the next year? Sure. That's when I started getting like flat out bullied. Okay, no, and there was a guy and I'll never forget because I only went to this school for a year and a half. And his name was Billy and he was like a like a skinhead. And not like a Nazi skinhead. But just like skinhead, punk rock, you know, okay, Doc Martens is this other subculture Oscar? Sure. Right. But you know, like Dropkick Murphys. Yeah, you know, let you toured with other class punk rock. And, and he the same thing he would call me. You know, I'm just gonna say, the term that I got called a lot was faggot. So he's walked by me and call me that and I remember he would throw an apple at me every day because I sat by myself, you know, and I just, you know, I just moved to this town, I have like two friends. And so, and he had a beanie. And on the top of it, he had made his homemade patch of his favorite band was the US bombs.

Chuck Shute: 14:51

That's another man you played with.

Ace Von Johnson: 14:54

And carry the guitar player. The sort of slash of the US bombs. I just I was on the phone with him last night. Still one of my closest friends in the world. So it's just I always these are this is

Unknown: 15:05

weird.

Ace Von Johnson: 15:05

This is so weird. I like to share those because it's like yeah, that is awesome. That guy that picks on you yeah for no because you may end up in his favorite band. I love it be able to do

Chuck Shute: 15:17

that is fucking awesome. So you start playing guitar. And then at 17 you make your first you join your first band PBR is kind of like a rancid, type punk band. But did you sing on this one too and play guitar?

Ace Von Johnson: 15:30

I I was the brain that was my band. I sang I play guitar. I wrote everything. Okay. I was a taskmaster, I was, you know, I wrote the baselines. I told the drummer what to do. And it was it was, you know, I was just trying to be rancid that okay, really, it's difficult fingers really into the classroom and rancid that kind of stuff. And right, circa 2001 2000, you know, still in high school, we put out an EP, we did it, we did some regional touring, we, you know, we got all the way up to Seattle and went up to the Bay Area a couple times, and we were all in high school. Wow, no. And we we did all that ourselves. And I was opening for national acts. I mean, we got to support the Misfits, the Misfits, you know, and, and I'm trying to think who else we played with? Just a ton of bands. Yeah. Somebody I don't even know.

Chuck Shute: 16:24

Well, so yeah. And then you're in a bunch of during for the next whatever, 10 years or whatever. You're in a bunch of bands, cheap sex, Madcap us bombs that we mentioned generators, eventually, later, unwritten law, Murphy's Law, but I think it was on 19. You gotta tell me this story. One of these bands that you were in, somebody gave you the nickname Ace, which has nothing to do with ace freely. So what is our story there with the name? Ace?

Ace Von Johnson: 16:49

Yes. So, so Okay, so it did PVR for a few years. And, and then me and my friends started cheap sex, which is basically an offshoot of my band. PVR at one point, it was my entire band with a different singer. And, and that kind of like hair punk, you know, Mohawks and all that stuff. Like gvhd exploited that kind of stuff. And, and then I was booking all these shows and networking and working my ass off. And I started bringing bands to San Diego and booking shows in Orange County and the center of the thing. And again, I was still teenager, and there was a band out of La called Madcap, that had a record deal. And they were friends of mine. I brought him down a few times. And one thing led to another and they had fired. They had fired their guitar player. And they said, they called me and I was in. I was 18, or 19. I was in my first year of college, and which didn't last very long. And they called me and said, Hey, we just fired Alfredo. We're on tour right now with a band called Fallout boy, who had Wow, hadn't broke yet. Okay, fall out. Boy was opening for Madcap. They said, we're going to be bound la in 10 days, we need a guitar player, will you come audition? And I said, and I and it's funny, because I still say this. Now I said, Well, I will. But I'm not going to audition. You either think I'm the guy or I'm not because I'm not playing in vain. Malmsteen stuff. It's just barre chords, right? So you either I'm either the guy or not, let's not waste each other's time. And so sure enough, I went up to Burbank, and I rehearse with him. I audition to rehearse with them twice. And less than a month later, I was in a van and I went on tour for two years straight. And on that very first tour I did with them. I was 19. And part of my hazing was we started a tour, supporting a band called Simple Plan, which was a pretty big pop.

Chuck Shute: 18:40

Yeah, that's a big one. Yeah,

Ace Von Johnson: 18:42

yeah. So we started with them, and it's the tour started in Jacksonville, Florida. And so part of my hazing was they made me more or less single handedly drive this van and trailer and Econoline pulling that thing full of equipment all the way to Florida. And we hadn't even got out of La yet. And I was driving over like a merging of freeways. And there was a like a pile up. And all these cars were slamming into each other and I swerved into the emergency lane, and was driving and slowing down down the emergency road lane of the highway. And you can see all these cars smashing into each other and my singer who unbeknownst to me, because I didn't understand the ins and outs of it but he was a little under the influence nose candy. Okay, yeah. And he jumped in between the seats there. Oh

Chuck Shute: 19:35

my god, you fucking Ace that man. You check out the new guy. He's saved our lives or whatever.

Ace Von Johnson: 19:41

And they started they started calling me Ace rumbler because I have a naturally baritone voice and I was hitting the rumble strips.

Chuck Shute: 19:51

Okay, pretty cool story and

Ace Von Johnson: 19:54

we're like, oh, your net. Your name is Ace rumbler now, and I thought that was the stupidest thing I've ever And, and so the rumbler thing lasted all of like 10 days. But by the as I'm sure you can imagine or maybe you know, you get on the road you're like, Oh, this is this Jimmy, but everyone calls him switchblade. By the end of the tour. He's switchblade. So by the end of this tour, everyone was calling me ace. And it didn't really gravitate to me because it just associated it with kiss. Yeah, I was never, I love kiss now. But I didn't get into kiss sort of on my own until I was in my late 20s and maybe mid 20s. And so at this point, I was like, oh, like, like the guy from kiss Ace, really. And so then I had to come home and sort of, there was this weird offshoot of people that knew me as Ace, and then people that knew me by my real name. And then eventually, after maybe a year, year or two, by the time I was probably 2021. I just was, that's just who I am. That's just, you know, when I think of myself in the third person, I'll be a bit silly. I just, that's my name. You know, right. That's how that's how that story came about.

Chuck Shute: 21:01

That's pretty cool. So you're playing with all these bands and then another one that you're in was a Charlie and the Valentine killers. And that's it like looking back. It's kind of an all star band. I mean, it had you Carrie Kelly, who worked with Alice Cooper slash and he's a night Ranger now. Brian forsyte from kicks of having the show. Chad Stewart from faster pussycat and Jerry was a Jerry Montano from Danzig on bass. And then Danny nordhoff, who's also on pussycat so that's how you got hooked up with the faster pussycat guys. And then they needed a guitar player they asked you to do is that a lot of this stuff works as networking, right?

Ace Von Johnson: 21:34

It's all everything in my life is networking. And I did. I did Madcap I did this. I did that I did Murphy's Law. And then I was playing with a guy named Dwayne Peters, who's a skateboarder. And we had a band with a few bands. And then his most known band is the US bombs. And so that was kind of the first half of my 20s was going from Mad cap to the US bombs and a myriad of other bands. And the US bombs booking agent was Charlie Overby. And Charlie was a guy in the late 80s. They had a band in LA, called Big Bang babies. And there was Carrie Kelly. So Charlie was booking these punk bands, you know, those bombs and the dwarves and the super suckers. But he had his finger on the pulse of that sort of 80s rock scene. Mm hmm. And he said, was probably 24. And I was looking to get out of playing and all these punk bands because I idolized them as a young man. But I was living with some guys and working with some guys and seeing how much money or how little money was to be made in that sort of scene. I also as a musician, guitar player was expanding beyond just barre chords and whatever else on you know, the joke I make is I was listening to less stiff little fingers and more Thin Lizzy less misfits, more Alice Cooper, some more guitar oriented stuff. And he approached me I was probably 24. And he said, Hey, you know, you're playing with Dwayne. And these guys in the bombs. You look, I mean, I basically look the same now. And he goes, uh, you got this look, you look cool. But you look like you should be in a rock band. Why are you in these stupid punk bands? And I said, Well, I'm trying to get in. I want to play rock. Okay, you know, we're interested in kiss and yellow and whatever else guitar wise and music wise than I am about, you know, punk rock. Which is funny, because now I've come full circle. And pretty much all I listened to now is just punk rock. But and so he pulled me into the Valentine killers. And he had already had sort of an all star lineup. And I think I guess I basically was replacing Brian forsyte. Okay, yeah. And the drummer was Chad, and I think at the time, the firt. At the time, the bass player was Jerry. And then Jerry matano. I owe a lot of my life to Him, because He brought me into a hole. He's like, hey, he, I became like his little buddies. Like, hey, we're gonna go to Zach Wilds house today, you know, and rainbow and he started taking me the rainbow every day. And and then I just started meeting people. And you know, I was like, oh, wow, we're hanging with the guy from Soundgarden. We're going here. And we're going there. We're going to this event, we're going to go to Nam this after party at this thing for Namor. And I was a kid I was 2425.

Chuck Shute: 24:23

That's pretty cool child, not childhood, but 20s

Ace Von Johnson: 24:26

data. And so I started just networking and meeting people. And and that led to a ton of opportunities. That's what got me inadvertently on the I did a Michael Jackson session. Yeah,

Chuck Shute: 24:39

I was gonna ask you about that. So tell me the story without like, I don't know if it was ever released. Did you actually work directly with Michael Jackson or

Ace Von Johnson: 24:47

no, because he was deceased at that.

Chuck Shute: 24:48

Okay. So it was a post humans thing? Yeah.

Unknown: 24:50

Yeah. It

Ace Von Johnson: 24:51

was posthumous. Was that the recorded and released? What would have been really so yeah, so Jerry, sort of similar to Charlie was doing the Charlie thing. was great because we did we toured with we did a bunch of dates with Heather head cat lemons band, so I get to oh you know mates with Lemmy and shoot pool with him and I've got some great funny stories and, and and then we went out with David Allan Coe. But then I think Jerry kind of did the same thing where he was like, Oh, I want to do this sort of like Americana. You know, like Mike, Mike ness social de meets Black Crowes kind of thing. And so Jerry brought me in to do his solo band, which was comprised of Mike Duffy, who at the time was in wasp, and Mike Marcus Avon who, at one point, we were jamming. And it was basically the band that turned into kill devil Hill. We had singing a couple songs and it was a weird little culmination of things there. And then, and some other stuff. Also, all the stories Wait,

Chuck Shute: 25:54

so give me the give me a lemon story. You said you had a bunch of good Lemmy stories? I haven't heard any of these. Oh, sure. Well, okay. Let

Ace Von Johnson: 26:00

me tell you the Michael Jackson wants to Oh, yeah. Right. So I mean, I, you know, somebody, somebody kind of somebody approached me about writing a book a few about two years ago, and I was not interested. But we had one of these conversations. And he goes, you definitely could write a book. And I said, Oh, I know, I could write a book. I don't want to. So. So Jerry and I are doing this record. And it's being produced by a guy named James Murray. And James Murray was a very was a very famous engineer. He did basically any new metal band you can think of he did Drowning Pool like let the body the bodies of the floor. He did a static x. I think he did Linkin Park, he did a ton of stuff, and engineer wise. And then he and his partner were doing stuff for American Idol, like the overnight mixes and everything else. And he had his hands on a lot of big things. And so we're doing this Jerry solo album, which never I think formally came out. Which is actually the last thing that I think his name was Paul from Slipknot, and passed away. He played on a track and then passed away very shortly after. And so that even that I think, is unreleased. So I don't know if you could quote me on that. But I know that he came in to do some stuff. But I digress. And so James, and I were drinking buddies. And we were out one day, and you know, I had already joined pussycats This is probably like, 2011 Mm hmm. And, and long after the Jerry thing, at least by year three. And I said, you know, we're sitting having a beer at the burgundy room in Hollywood. And he said, What are you working on? I said, I'm doing a batch of these Michael Jackson songs. Because they're doing this posthumous album. And they're doing, you know, this famous producer gets these three songs, his famous producer gets these three songs. And he was engineering for a guy named nephew who's a famous Grammy winning hip hop producers, Rihanna, m&m Dre. That whole scene. And so he was doing these, this batch of MJ songs. And he and I sit right on, how's it going? Oh, we're done. We got one more song to do tomorrow to finish a few guitar things. And we're done. And I say, well, man, like what the hell, bro? What you could have called me and have done it for case of beer. And he goes, Yeah, yeah. But they've got all this protocol. And they use and all this what you expect. And so we're drinking, we're drinking. He goes, You

Chuck Shute: 28:17

know what, fuck it.

Ace Von Johnson: 28:21

And mess around with one of these songs. And I mean, the story is pretty involved, but I'll kind of give you the 10 cent version. So we go there. And he goes, we've got all these guitars Do I need to go home and get my stuff and we're drunk. It's like two of them. throws me he throws me in the back of his Harley. And I ride bishop to Burbank to the studio and he does not get guitars there. And we get there and all the wall hangers with all the guitars go, we're all cleared out and he goes out he goes on Monday, Lincoln Park is coming into tracks and stuff and they cleared all the equipment. So we're looking around, there's got to be a guitar here. It's like a professional studio. And we find in this closet, this dirty ass old white Stratocaster with the strings. And we go fuck it, he goes that that'll do. And I swear to God, I go, he goes, do you want to hear the track? And I said, I don't want to hear it. I just want to jam along. I said, Tell me what the BPM is in the key, because it's a minor and it's in like, you know, 122 is it? Sure. So this track starts rolling. And I'm sitting there with this guitar and just played a couple funky things like what what I'm playing a strap on.

Chuck Shute: 29:27

And it's three in the morning and you're drunk and

Ace Von Johnson: 29:30

and we do three passes through the song and he goes, alright, you're done. And he puts his headphones on and I'm like, Okay, he's doing what he does professionally. He's editing and moving stuff around, and he had highlighted some stuff he liked. Okay, passes, you know, 20 minutes go by and he goes, all right. You want to hear your song? And I said sure. And he presses play and he plays me this Michael Jackson song with these little guitar parts in it that were me. And I was like, Wow, that's so fucking cool man. And I knew no one would believe me and it's some it's out there in the ether somewhere. So on I put my phone on video and I go, Hey, backing up, let

Unknown: 30:03

me hear that part again. And I videotape.

Ace Von Johnson: 30:08

And he and he goes, ha ha ha, that was fun. Know what, you'll never hear it again. And that'll be the end of it. And I said, you know, and that's just what I assumed. Yeah. So he puts me in an Uber, I go home, and I wake up the next morning, and I've got a bunch of Miss phone calls from him. And I and I, you know, 10 or 11 in the morning, call him back. I'm like, what's up, and he goes, Hey, I need you to get over here right now. And I was like, what's up, and he goes, Well, nephew's here and he loves what you did. And we're canceling the session guy, we want to use you. And I was like, so nice. So I show back up, I clean up some stuff. And then they want me to redo the solo. Formerly with like, you know, effects and stuff, because I was just going in basically straight into an AMP dry. Sure, ya know, pretty, you know, nothing. So that became a whole thing and blah, blah, blah. The song ended up getting cut from the album version, but they mixed and mastered it intended to put it on there. But we went in favor of the same song, the same vocal track from MJ, but by a different producer who built from scratch, more sort of contemporary hip hop, sort of dancey version, okay, didn't have didn't have guitars. Live drums. Gotcha. And so a couple years went by, and I was talking to a friend of mine, who's a big music, entertainment lawyer. And one of the big factors in this story is somebody pulled in my driveway. Just slightly concerned. Okay. And I'll tell you why later. So, um,

Chuck Shute: 31:38

so

Ace Von Johnson: 31:40

I just can't escape the phone doing obnoxious sound stuff in the background.

Chuck Shute: 31:45

It happens. So.

Ace Von Johnson: 31:48

So James, was working out a deal for me to get paid for the session. And

Unknown: 31:58

I'm sorry, do you

Chuck Shute: 31:59

want to take a break? Or no, no, no,

Ace Von Johnson: 32:01

I'm just getting this ring thing.

Chuck Shute: 32:03

Okay. I've got one of those. There's somebody there or

Ace Von Johnson: 32:06

Yeah, someone just leaving a package there. Okay. Couldn't be a more in opportunity. Make all the noises in my house simultaneously go

Chuck Shute: 32:16

at least the dogs being goodies. She doesn't share. She's indifferent.

Ace Von Johnson: 32:21

Yeah. So. So James, passed away about a month after we record it. And he was in a really shitty motorcycle accident. That was someone else's fault. And so. So I never, I never got any sort of. I basically was never credited or paid for the session. And so this became kind of a campfire story, you know? Sure. Sure. Sure. Sure. You did. And, and I've since since then, obviously, developed a line of communication with with nephew since, but at the time, for a few years, I just felt like I had done this really great thing that no one was ever going to see or hear. And the friend of mine who's an entertainment lawyer, she said, you know, you have because you weren't paid, you have a little bit of rights. And but because you'd be going up against basically Michael Jackson's estate, you're going to you're going to lose. Yeah, he said, Your best bet is to just bootleg it and just release it, you know, and digitally. And so I basically wrote up in, typed out what I the longer version of the story I just told you and put it up on SoundCloud. And it grew some legs. And for about two years, it was in every interview I ever did. Everyone had a question about it. And and it got, you know, spread around the internet. Like basically, if you type in a spawn Johnson and Michael Jackson, yeah, pop up tenfold. And so that's kind of that whole thing. Okay. I wish it had been formally formally released. The last conversation I had with James was one of them was him telling me that even though they aren't putting it on the album that at some point, because they'd already put the time and money into it, right, it would come out on like a deluxe edition kind of thing.

Chuck Shute: 34:07

Okay, well, that'd

Ace Von Johnson: 34:08

be cool. So, you know, nephew's version, which is the thing that I'm on has been recognized, and it's sort of considered a formal bootleg, if you will, of this session. And I think the vocal track from Michael was from the late 80s or early 90s. So it's like kind of prime and J. And, and, and if you look on there's a YouTube thing that features that in the comments are pretty, pretty much like this is what it was supposed to sound like versus versus the album. Sort of like, Yeah, he

Chuck Shute: 34:38

did just Yeah, kind of r&b. I didn't like that. I don't think I think I heard like one song and I was like, wasn't my cup of tea, but the version

Ace Von Johnson: 34:46

I did was a little more like thriller and bad air. Okay. Yeah. I

Chuck Shute: 34:49

like that stuff.

Ace Von Johnson: 34:49

I like that sounds like something that would come out now. Yeah, it had some like dubstep, right?

Chuck Shute: 34:53

Yeah. Okay, that's not my cup of tea. But so you're in faster. let's let's let's close that chapter. Yeah,

Ace Von Johnson: 34:59

so that was it, man. That was exciting. And that still gets me that still gets me work. Oh, you know, just by mentioning Sure. in general. Yeah, I mean that got put on your resume for sure. Yeah, that got me I there was a thing where I was almost the bass player for 30 Seconds to Mars.

Chuck Shute: 35:15

Oh, that would have been cool.

Ace Von Johnson: 35:18

It's not something I've ever just disclosed publicly yet, but I don't care anymore. Wow. So that was what I led with was well, I just did a session for Michael Jackson. Yeah. with Jared Leto. So you got to meet Jared Leto.... San Diego we played brick by brick Charlie and Ballantine killers, and my tech, whose name is Johnny pockets that some old school guys out there might know. He used to ride BMX, out in the valley with slash when they were kids. But so Johnny pockets plugged my amp in incorrectly. And I'm standing on the drum riser this club. And to the left of the stage are these little saloon doors that go to the backstage or greenroom at this club called brick by brick. And if you know anything about brick by brick, the dressing room is literally about four by eight. It's like the size of a bathroom stall. And and Lemmy. God rest his soul is just sitting there watching the baby, right? You know, watching us about to play because he and Charlie are friends and whatnot. And I jump off the monitor and I do my thing and no sound comes out of my amp. And then Johnny runs on stage and we're plugging stuff in that we're already in the first song and it's just a total shit show. But I'm you know, mortified and I look over to my left and Lebanese look and I see these saloon doors swinging open and close. And he's just looking at me shaking his head was like, man, I totally the first show we do with head with with Lemmy here and head cat. I'm embarrassed myself. My amps, not even on but whoops. And then later that evening, he mercilessly kicked my acid, a few rounds of pool. But um, so yeah, so I'm gonna let you take the reins.

Chuck Shute: 37:03

Okay, so yeah, so Lemmy, you got some great stories. So but while you're in, this is a question I always wondered about. With faster Pussycat, you're in that band for like, I mean, I don't know if you're technically still in it. Sixth member or whatever you want to call it right. But how come you guys never released any music during that entire time? I mean, I think the last record they did was like a live album in 2009.

Ace Von Johnson: 37:24

Yeah. And you know, what's interesting is I had wouldn't be able to answer that until about six months ago. And because I never knew and it infuriated me that I went from putting out an album every six months in all my bands. So I mean, sometimes I was putting out five albums a year or whatever it was planning on them to joining pussycat I was 26..... I'm trying to do the math...

Chuck Shute: 37:50

2009 I think...

Ace Von Johnson: 37:51

I was 26 when they brought me in. And I was 27 when I became a member, okay. So because I came in in 2009, and I didn't actually I rehearse with them for about a month and then off and on, and then didn't get on stage with them for a few internal reasons until 2010. Okay, and so but and then at that point, became a member. I don't know if it's my position to be able to disclose why, but Taime, and some of the original guys collectively had some sort of bogus thing where basically, I'm trying to be vague here because I don't want to sell my place to tell but I think the merchandising company that they owed money to, and they had basically garnished some sort of something to do with publishing. Okay, so basically, Taimey said, I'm not putting out music until this gets resolved. Because they were taking his money. And so it go figure got resolved in the last, or is being resolved or has been resolved. Okay. And so now that I'm sort of basically not really in the band anymore, now, he's recording music left. That being said, I recorded probably 15 songs with Tommy and my 10 year tenure, okay, tenure, if you will, with the band, but none of them will ever come out. And I have all those guilt with Gilby Clarke. I mean, you know, I'm sure someday I'll bootleg all those songs too. Oh,

Chuck Shute: 39:24

that'd be awesome to hear. I love gilby Clarke, he's

Ace Von Johnson: 39:28

one of my favorites. Oh, I love Gilby two's a good friend and and so we would record something and re record it and Taime would change his mind and then he when he got sober then he wanted to scrap everything and start from scratch and then that became a whole other process and so it just kind of went on and on and on and then I got the LA guns gig two and a half years ago and then put all my focus there. And then my... I'm kidding a bit, ut he's sort of my proteg- Sam BAM Koulton- wh's playing for pus He's been over there because he's kind of a phenom...

Chuck Shute: 40:03

Yeah, so you said you said he's gonna be huge in like five years, maybe less.

Ace Von Johnson: 40:06

Yeah, he'll he'll be he'll be the next Jerry Cantrell or whatever for sure to him. And so Sam, I put in there as sort of my temp and I knew that it probably would be at least a long term thing. Okay, and but you know, I mean, there were some shows that I was supposed to do with pussycat last year obviously due to COVID didn't happen, but I didn't quit I didn't get fired. I basically subbed out indefinitely. And so Sam's in the band and I guarantee at some point in the future, I'll be back on stage attaining the goals and I just went over there and recorded two more recent songs, one of which one or two of which will come out supposedly before April. Oh, nine. team is going to put out a single like a physical like a seven inch. I've

Chuck Shute: 40:52

seen it. Okay, really cool. What's it called?

Unknown: 40:54

digital.

Chuck Shute: 40:55

Can you say? Can you say the name of the song?

Ace Von Johnson: 40:57

Yeah, it's uh, I think it's Nola. I think it's New Orleans. Okay, so and the beside is a Johnny thunders cover, which I'm ecstatic about. Nice.

Chuck Shute: 41:06

That'll be cool. And then what else? Yeah,

Ace Von Johnson: 41:08

so that I don't know what the question was, but Pussycat,

Chuck Shute: 41:11

Why hadn't they released new music in the last 12 years or whatever. So they will, they will be releasing?

Ace Von Johnson: 41:17

that's basically why Okay, my, to my chagrin, and, you know, hopefully, he'll get an album out within a year or two. I mean, I know he's got it in. And I've seen and played on or previous versions of the material. So I know it's there. It's just whether he wants to continue to nitpick and write, redo and redo etc, etc. That's, that's up to him.

Chuck Shute: 41:39

Yeah. But, and then there's new Yeah, there's new LA Guns coming out- I heard the single "Let You Down", which is amazing. And there's going to be more to that that, because that sounds great. So and you'll be on the next LA Guns for sure.

Ace Von Johnson: 41:52

I'm actually going to be recording some stuff here in the next 72 hours for the next elegans. Okay, nice. Oh,so that's coming out. I don't know anything about it, other than we want it out. Okay. Summer ish, maybe? I don't know. I don't want to be the guy that speaks incorrectly. Yeah. out of turn here. But it'll be out obviously, before the fall.

Chuck Shute: 42:16

Right. Okay. Cool. And,

Ace Von Johnson: 42:19

and I think we were supposed to don't quote me on this. But I think we were supposed to already have had it out. But we obviously with COVID. And this that the other thing, we weren't in a huge rush to just drop a record and have it just sit on the shelf. Right. So we get a little more relaxed with that. But I've heard a few of the songs. I don't know how many of mine are making the album, obviously, I know, I can confirm that one of them is okay, possibly to maybe a third, but I don't know, don't again, don't quote me. But uh, you know, this stuff's great. And I think the last two records, the reunion albums with Phil and Tracii are great. And, you know, I say that objectively, because I really had nothing to do with any of that. And, you know, just kind of speaking as a friend and a fan. And I think the new single "Let You Down" is phenomenal. I think it's much better than what the other thing is putting out

Chuck Shute: 43:09

Well, okay, I know. And I know, everyone's sick of hearing about this, and but I gotta bring it, I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't ask you. Because there was just a recent thing where Tracii sent a picture of the patent for LA guns. But then Steve came back. It's a no, no, no, we co-own the name. And I've had Steve on. He's a nice guy. I mean, from what I can tell, I don't know what goes on beyond this behind the scenes. You know, I've heard Tracii in interviews, he seems like a nice guy. I don't know what the solution is. Could could they buy Steve out? Would that be the solution and maybe buy him out of the name?

Ace Von Johnson: 43:39

That I don't know. But I'm guessing here that that's maybe not something that he's willing to participate in? But I don't know. But I'm, I think with what's going on most currently, because it's still it's still in it. I don't know if litigation is the right term. Okay, an ongoing thing. I think I'm supposed to just say I have no comment.

Chuck Shute: 44:02

Fair enough. Fair enough. Now, I don't want to get you in trouble or anything. But yeah, it's just I can tell you all about it as a bro off the record. Okay, that would be cool. And I am getting I put it in the vault, you know, so. So yeah,

Ace Von Johnson: 44:15

I mean, I think anyone that subscribes to the other version, it's simply because they it's maybe like, Oh, they either are curious. Or it's a it's a like a loyalty thing. But overall, if you if you're just asking someone, as far as any band goes, whether it's the guns, guns, roses, or the Eagles or whatever, if you're looking at if you're looking at Keith Richards and Mick Jagger, that's the stones. Sure. You're not going man, Charlie Watson's version of the Rolling Stones is where it's at. Yeah, you know, and so you might really like Charlie Watts his backswing but he's not the band.

Chuck Shute: 44:53

Sure.

Ace Von Johnson: 44:54

So especially when he's not even on the first album, original drummer. True. Yeah. So Again, you got the singer, the songwriter, the guitar player. To me, to me, it should be an obvious thing And beyond that, I'm just gonna go with a I plead the fifth.

Chuck Shute: 45:12

Fair enough. So let's move on a neon coven. This is a cool band. I just discovered this from listening to interviews with you but Jacob button Bundt Bunton, Did I say that right is in there. And Anthony monta singer the singer is great. You gotta go re

Ace Von Johnson: 45:30

era still can't pronounce your last Yeah,

Chuck Shute: 45:32

you got a real drummer for this because it's kind of has like an EDM, a little bit vibe, kind of a poppy kind of dip. I think you call it Depeche Mode meets something else. I forget what it was the other band that you said it was, but it is very, it's very good stuff. And I liked it. There is a real drummer in it. And not just maybe there is some drum tracks on some songs. But a lot of the songs I heard had a real drummer, which I thought was really cool. It's just a really neat mix of and that singer he really does sound like you're you're listening to like an 80s pop singer like he nails that it's fun stuff. I mean, are you guys going to do any live shows or tour? You know,

Ace Von Johnson: 46:08

thank you by the way, neon coven is has been great because it's really been a wonderful outlet for everybody. We all collectively love the eclectic pneus of the band because and you know, we'll go from ministry to contract googoo to Rob Zombie to Yeah, schmo to Nine Inch Nails so I love all that stuff. Piko negative. So it's kind of spans that gamut. We've done a few shows, it's not really meant to be like a touring product. Obviously, if the financial ability coupled with what's going on in the fucking world right now COVID and everything an issue, I'm sure we would do a lot of dates, but I don't know that with everyone's schedules. Specific specifically me and Jacob. If that's even really an option, I mean, I'm sure we'll play a few more shows but I don't know that we're going to be touring per se. But um, we put the record out in May I think Halloween or the 30th or so. And we've had a few singles you know, get some terrestrial radio playing whatnot. And then one of the three songs of mine on the album, dead to me, which is probably the either the heaviest or second heaviest song of the record is getting a ton of radio plates. It's like number 160 on that on the on the mainstream charts right now. Okay, nice isn't anything to brag about, but considering we're an indie band that doesn't really exist, it's pretty good.

Chuck Shute: 47:29

That's really good.

Ace Von Johnson: 47:30

And so we're getting a lot of terrestrial play on that so if anyone wants to call their local radio station and and pump up dead to me by neon covenant, I would appreciate it or get

Chuck Shute: 47:38

it get you on those Spotify playlist that's the big thing I hear now is if you get on a Spotify playlist and then we give him a subscribe to that that

Ace Von Johnson: 47:46

a bunch to yeah first single which was blaming on the drugs and that took off we got like 150,000 hits in the first month Nice.

Chuck Shute: 47:55

Yeah, so

Ace Von Johnson: 47:56

you know it's just meant to be I don't want to call it solely a studio project but it's definitely more more studio direction.

Chuck Shute: 48:02

Yeah, what about another studio thing that you did? You did a song with popstar Tiffany is as this song come out or what because I listened to a song and it was like this can't be it. There's no guitars in this one. So this hasn't come out yet.

Ace Von Johnson: 48:15

I think that was supposed to come out in the fall and again so I thought yeah, wish back I mean we shot a video we shot a video for that and everything it was meant to be like the lead single offer new album and it's I don't think she's disclosed what it is. So I probably won't but it's a it's a cover Okay, and and we had a really good time recording that and we did it at sunset sound is you know really great legendary studio Zeppelin and the stones and fucking name a band is recorded. There's great room so great vibes.

Chuck Shute: 48:47

And tell me this other one you played in a music video with the singer of one of the biggest heavy metal bands of all time, but you can't say who it is. But can you tell us when that will come out?

Unknown: 48:57

Oh, the the Corey Taylor video.

Chuck Shute: 48:59

Is it coral is no it is I didn't know you couldn't say

Ace Von Johnson: 49:02

he just came out like a week ago. Oh, whatever you're probably referencing It was probably before

Chuck Shute: 49:07

Okay, video came out. I haven't seen it yet mentioned. So it says solos and stuff. Go ahead. It's a solo song that are

Ace Von Johnson: 49:14

Yeah, from the CMF t project. Okay, his new his newest singles a song called Samantha's gone. And the video has the CMF t band in it and then also Steel Panther. And then I love that sort of a mock band. We're mocking I don't know if I should even say but we're mocking a popular band that looks like they're from the 70s. Okay, and so, and in my band was a Greg Greenberg on drums. And Jonah Nimoy on keyboards. That's Leonard Nimoy, his grandson. Oh and Greg had been in some newer Star Wars movie and Jonah being descendent of Leonard Nimoy so we're talking about all the Star Trek and Star Wars and we were really all just being nerdy fanboys and we decided to name our fictional band trek wars. And so we just had a blast shooting that video. It was like that was funny thing I did during COVID that was a social thing,

Chuck Shute: 50:19

okay,

Ace Von Johnson: 50:20

because we all had to get on site COVID tested, but I know the quarry band and I know the Steel Panther guys, and I got to know the guys in this sort of fictional video band. And

Chuck Shute: 50:29

yeah,

Ace Von Johnson: 50:30

for one day, in a six month stretch, it was like I had a normal life. Like I was like, at a rehearsal at a video shoot with some friends. We were, you know, having pizza and all this stuff. So that was cool. And I think what's today thursday? I think that came out last week. Okay, yes, pretty.

Chuck Shute: 50:45

Oh, check that out. That's very cool. And then so horror movies, music, and then voice voice acting. So you started doing prank calls when you were a kid? I think like every kid did. But then in your 20s you actually took like voice lessons and then now you do voiceover work. So yeah, can you give us a taste of that like some of the I've heard some of the different voice I heard like a reel or something on the internet. Yeah, all

Ace Von Johnson: 51:10

my all my my demo reels are on my website. So if you go to a spa, Johnson calm there's a voiceover tab.

Chuck Shute: 51:15

Okay, it has

Ace Von Johnson: 51:17

my I think up to somewhat up to date resume with some stuff, and then my reels and wanted. You know, the thing I started hearing because I hit puberty when I was like five years old. And so the thing I've been hearing my whole life was Oh, you have such a nice speaking voice and a speaking voice blah, blah, blah. And my mom was always trying to encourage me to into getting into radio. And I never really was interested in being a DJ or something like that, per se. But I got I started looking into voiceover in my 20s I took I studied professionally, if you will, it took a bunch of courses and some workshops and you know, group things and this that the other thing that went on for a few years and then I started reaching out to people and booking stuff and just like anything and especially the music stuff a lot of it's just networking, like who's right time and who you know. And so people would you know, like yourself and be like, Oh,

Chuck Shute: 52:11

I'm doing this thing for this thing.

Ace Von Johnson: 52:12

If I give you 100 bucks, will you say these five sentences I'd be like yeah, so it just kind of went from there. And then I got a few I've done a few things for Netflix.

Chuck Shute: 52:21

Yeah. Some dubbing jobs money heist in the show. Marianne is up.

Ace Von Johnson: 52:27

Yeah, Marianne, some stuff for Season Three of money heist. I'm like eight different characters that are all like, small.

Chuck Shute: 52:33

Okay, and then.

Ace Von Johnson: 52:34

And then I did a show called the woods about six months ago. That's a murder mystery, and I'm a main character in that name boy tech.

Chuck Shute: 52:44

Is it true that you pitched an animated series with Don Jameson from that metal show?

Ace Von Johnson: 52:50

I don't know where you're getting all these factoids, but I'm impressed Yeah, yeah, DJ that's my guy I talked to him a couple days ago I loved on

Chuck Shute: 52:57

Yeah, I had him on the show he's great. Did this so that didn't go anywhere though the show

Ace Von Johnson: 53:01

I wish it had you know I've got a few things with some a few a few people that are animated based that have made this the rounds and been shocked and all this stuff. And because my dream is my goal is to do full time animation

Chuck Shute: 53:18

voiceover that would be fun

Ace Von Johnson: 53:20

obviously doesn't sound like it right now cuz I'm just talking to my speaking voice but anytime I send anybody my animation reels though is like which of the which of the voices talking? Are you like? They're all me like the people talking to themselves. I'm like, those are all my voices. Right? God,

Chuck Shute: 53:35

that sort of voice over real is Yeah. That's fun. Exactly. Yeah.

Ace Von Johnson: 53:39

So So dawn was came out with pussycat several times as our support act, and Dawn and Danny Nordahl from Pussycat, my bass player and one of my best friends out there. And I would, you know, throw back a beer and start talking about these, you know, concepts for TV, animated shows. And we got back to LA and got with some people and came up with a pitch and, and we did a table read for the, what would you call that? The pilot? Sure. And in the pilot, I think there were 12 characters and I voiced nine of them, right. So it was like, you there was a lot of me bouncing between characters in different voice inflections. If I'm in the right frame of mind, I can do okay. Nice. But uh, so yeah, so that was a thing and nothing happened with it, but it'd be great if it's circle back and did and then another friend of mine is pitching a series right now that you know, fingers crossed, maybe something comes from it and Jacob button and I are, we're basically ourselves. It's about a group of musicians. Okay. But it's meant to be sort of like, Scooby Doo. Like it's for like fun means.

Chuck Shute: 54:49

Okay, that'd be cool. See,

Ace Von Johnson: 54:51

I mean, I like anything in any of this entertainment stuff. I don't believe anything until I see it. sign a contract and someone right you know, it tries I don't believe Absolutely.

Chuck Shute: 55:02

So your buddy. You mentioned Danny, your buddy, Danny Nordahl, the bass player from pussycat I have to bring this up. I didn't know I found this this video of him fall getting drunk and falling and hitting his head on the door. I can laugh because he's okay didn't get hurt. But I listened to you tell the story. You felt like he kind of deserved it that he was kind of he was so drunk that he was like, he was kind of turning into a dick drunk, right?

Ace Von Johnson: 55:26

He was a fucking dick. sweetest people on earth, I would take a bullet for Danny. Wow. And he was having some personal issues at home and was just in a bad spot. It was drinking excessively. And he was sideways as we would say, by noon. And my step brother and his wife came to the show, and this was just outside of Atlanta. And it was the first time they'd seen me perform maybe, or at least in a long time, at least with pussycat Yeah. And so it was important to me that, you know, I wasn't embarrassed in front of my family. But clearly, that was not an option. And so I'll just say we did everything imaginable to get Danny to get his shit together to play the show. And we knew that it was unlikely that he would complete his task, if you will.

Chuck Shute: 56:24

So when you say you had to do it, you have to give him like cocaine and shit or whatever. Like how, okay. Okay, you're nodding for people that aren't seen the video of this. Okay, just checking.

Ace Von Johnson: 56:34

I mean, I you know, I'm not condoning that behavior. But yeah, let's, let's be honest.

Chuck Shute: 56:41

You play in a rock band, and they're known for sleaze rock. So this kind of shit happens. Yeah,

Ace Von Johnson: 56:48

I mean, look, I love me and Jake, jack and ginger, but I'm not a party per se when it comes to substances. And so

Unknown: 56:57

yeah, so they tried to you know, I think at one point someone threw coffee coffee on it but I couldn't

Ace Von Johnson: 57:03

and look been beaten faster Pussycat, it during that time before TV got sober is a real quick way to toughen you up. I'll tell you that.

Unknown: 57:12

I bet. So

Ace Von Johnson: 57:15

the bass player in the support band that was on the road with us was like a, like a musician's Institute kid, like, you know, could read music and everything. We basically said, Here's 12 songs, learn them all. Be ready to play them tonight. Hmm. And so if you watch enough of the video, you'll see that almost seamlessly, Danny's carried off stage and another guy comes up and plays bass.

Chuck Shute: 57:37

So you had a backup ready? Basically,

Ace Von Johnson: 57:39

yes. But Danny made it through maybe 70% of this show. I saw some stuff online where it was like, go refill the first song. And it's like, No, that was the end of the show. Okay. We we the set, I think at that point was in three or four segments. And we were on the last segment of the show. So regardless, and what he what actually happened is if again, if you review the footage, he was so messed up, that my tech at the time drew who I hail, amazing guy, put a chair on stage and was like sitting the chair and Danny was like, No, but if you watch, he's backing up and drunk, and he trips over the chair, and so and everybody thinks he hit his head into the drums, but he didn't. He hit his top of his shoulder on the drum riser. But he was so drunk that that whiplash makes his head look like it's okay. But the thing The funny thing is, is we got on the Monsters of Rock cruise the next day, and at the time, they didn't even have Wi Fi on those things. For six or seven days, we were off the grid. So all these people had created their own stories in their minds, okay, on the cruise. And people were like, I heard Danny died. I heard his brain aneurism is in the video went to one of those like CNN clip shows like Internet clip shows, and he went viral. So his poor like 87 year old mother is like having a coronary son fell on stage and died and can't reach him. Oh, boy. Well, I'm glad we can laugh at it, man. No time it was anything but funny.

Chuck Shute: 59:14

So is there a lot of that kind of shit that like I heard you say something about like, you kind of hate people and you. You kind of have to be drunk to be social. But then I also hear you talk about, you know, you're friends with Doyle from the Misfits and Ricky Rockman. And these are some of your closest like so so you kind of have like a love hate relationship with people. No, I

Ace Von Johnson: 59:31

mean, I'm just not. I don't hate people. I'm just a misanthrope. I just would prefer to not interact with anybody. Really. And, yeah. And, like this whole COVID thing. Like everyone I know so many people, you know, jokes aside so many people that are having a hard time with not being able to socialize or go out or do anything and I'm like, I got the dog and my records. I'm good. Fuck all y'all. Ricky. Ricky is one of my best friends in the world. Talk to Ricky probably every day. Okay, Doyle's a good friend. I love that guy. It's it's a trip for me to be friends with someone that was my childhood idol. But you know, I mean, super cool. Doyle's kind of a misanthrope a little bit, too, I don't want to speak for him. But, you know, I just, if, if I, if I'm out on tour, and I'm going to go to the merge table and talk to 30 or 50 people that I don't know that are, you know, personality wise, wise, all over the place, I have to be drinking. Otherwise, I'm just too dry. And too, like, you know, like, it just,

Chuck Shute: 1:00:36

I can't I just can't do it. It's stressful. When there's big, you're not good in big groups is what you're saying?

Unknown: 1:00:41

Yeah, yeah. I

Ace Von Johnson: 1:00:42

mean, like, with one or two or three people, I'm fine. But when you put a bunch of people around me or a bunch of strangers, yeah,

Chuck Shute: 1:00:48

that's totally different.

Ace Von Johnson: 1:00:50

I just, I just shut down.

Chuck Shute: 1:00:51

That's me, too. Yeah, I can do this one on one. I could do this all day with people. But when it's like, even like five people, I'm like, Who do I talk to? What do I do? It's like too, like overwhelming.

Ace Von Johnson: 1:01:01

I don't know. It's definitely overwhelming. And I'm pretty guarded person. And I've just had more I've just had a lot of things happen in my life that have made me not really enjoy human interaction. And so well, thank you for tolerating this, then I appreciate that. Oh, no, this has been great. I thank you for having me A and B for I'm shocked at all the factoids you've got. I just like some of the stuff I know. You're like mentioning Murphy's Law, like, Oh, yeah. But uh, so no, I don't want people to think like I'm approachable or something like that. I'm just not the biggest social Sure. Send me in more. So it's just hard for me to put myself into that position. And the easiest way to do it is by having a fucking drink. You know, so definitely hope not because I'm an alcoholic. I haven't had something to drink since Thanksgiving. But Wow, I'm just because it's the only way to loosen me up to where I'm like, Yeah, yeah, let's take some pictures and talk about the weather. So sure,

Chuck Shute: 1:02:02

that can be tough in those meet and greets and stuff. Well, let's talk about uh, I'd like to end with a charity so I know that you work with pitbulls you have a pitbull? And you helped kind of facilitate people adopting dogs and stuff like that. I think that's really cool. What is is there a certain charity organization that you work with though?

Unknown: 1:02:22

Oh, yes and no. Well,

Chuck Shute: 1:02:26

I'm affiliated with Okay,

Ace Von Johnson: 1:02:27

I got to lose partnership with the best friends animal.

Chuck Shute: 1:02:32

What's the thing with Linda Blair from the exorcist? That's another thing that I'm like that's so cool that you know her.

Ace Von Johnson: 1:02:37

Yeah, she was going to be funny enough. My third mention I was going to mention Best Friends Animal society.org. And then I was going to mention stand up for pits with Rebecca Cory. I look back. I love what she does. I love standing for pets. And then my third go to is Linda Hart. Wow, Linda Blair world Heart Foundation. Okay, too many were stupid. Okay. Word salad word soup. Whatever it is. Yeah. Linda is amazing. She's such a sweet woman. She does so much good stuff for these poor animals. She's also like me a big Pitbull proponent and does a lot of people advocacy. And she also happens to be fucking Reagan from the exorcist. Yes, she's, uh, she's, I mean, you know, what I love about Linda is I'll get a text from her like, 417 in the morning,

Unknown: 1:03:24

and she'll be like, hey, sweetheart, I was just thinking about you. So make sure you're okay. So and So dog this.

Ace Von Johnson: 1:03:29

Do you know a person that whatever and I just because I'm a night owl, yeah. So I've just always tripped out on

Chuck Shute: 1:03:35

that. And that's really cool.

Ace Von Johnson: 1:03:37

That name pop up on your phone.

Chuck Shute: 1:03:38

Yeah, that's cool. That's crazy. But yeah,

Ace Von Johnson: 1:03:41

I definitely recommend checking out Linda Blair world Heart Foundation. Stand up for Pitts best friends, Animal Society.

Chuck Shute: 1:03:50

And you mentioned Rebecca Cory. She's a comedian. Correct? Yeah, she's, uh, she's

Ace Von Johnson: 1:03:55

done some TV stuff and a lot of stand up and everything. And Rebecca is a friend and I adore her dearly, and she's great. And her foundation is amazing. They have this thing called the angel day where once a year they go and they take all these locations, and they just do free spay and neuter all over the place. And they raise a ton of money. And she does a lot of a lot of outreach. And everything actually, almost sent her a message today, but I got distracted with 10 other things. Yeah, she's a great group, and then also pinups for pitbulls in the Pittsburgh area at the Northeast somewhere. That's another great group. City dogs. I think it's called city dogs. A lot of this stuff I'm just unprepared for and

Chuck Shute: 1:04:34

that's fine. No, I can I can figure it out. I'll put a couple in the notes. So people want to look into that stuff. Sure. The Ohio area.

Ace Von Johnson: 1:04:41

That's a big one that I really adore. And I have some outreach with and, and there's some other ones, but I'm just unfortunately, I'm drawing a blank.

Chuck Shute: 1:04:50

Yeah, no, that's fine. Do you think that a lot of the thing with pitbulls, they get a bad reputation? I feel like in any dog can really get a bad reputation Do you feel like that's more Because of the owner, though, than the dog, I mean a dog, or a dog, or a pet or cat or whatever. I mean, they're just an innocent animal they don't know. It's really how it has to do with how the owners control their animals. Right?

Ace Von Johnson: 1:05:12

It's absolutely it's, I mean, I can't single handedly just say it solely is on the owner. But it's, it's a lot of it's just basically conditioning. You get any pet and you and I mean, domestic, I'm not talking about like an alligator or a cat or whatever the Puma, you know, if you have a large dog, and you socialize it and train it from an early age on, then your chances of having an issue are pretty much next to nil. But because of I'm trying to choose my words carefully here. These types, the Pitbull type, because not technically a breed, it's a type. Pit Bull type dogs are such people pleasers, that it's easy to instill in them the wrong things to do. Oh, interesting. The one of the things that these dogs were bred for is their inclination to want to please you. And if you say kill that other dog, it's going to go Dad says I have to kill that other dog. That's

Chuck Shute: 1:06:13

interesting.

Ace Von Johnson: 1:06:15

People again, oh, it's not my misanthropy misanthropy. Again, why I don't like people, I don't do a ton of charity work when it comes to human beings stuff, because I just don't want to, every year I do a ton of stuff for Toys for Tots, because I'll always do anything for children. That's nice. Anything cancer related, but beyond that, I just go right back to the animals and the dogs, especially nipples. But um, you know, and if you get them and you train them to love other like, she doesn't have another she's doesn't have problems with other dogs. Unless they try to mount her. She isn't. doesn't doesn't play that. Nobody wants that. Yeah, some people well, but um, you know, besides that, you know, a lot of it's just stereotyping. And unfortunately, it's something that we've been doing since the 50s. we collectively used to stereotype German Shepherds because it was in the title. And then it was Rottweilers, and then it was Dobermans, and it's just what it really is, is if you're going to have a dog that's 5060 100 pounds. You have to be a responsible owner. It's like if you draw, you get drunk and drive your car into a school bus. That's not the cars fault, right? It's

Chuck Shute: 1:07:25

your dumb ass. No. And it's like the worst like those people that are at the zoo that jumped over the fence, and then the tiger eats them or the gorilla kills them. And then they put the animal down. I'm like, What the fuck? Like, you jumped into an animal's k that your fall like,

Ace Von Johnson: 1:07:40

B. And that's where I go right back into the misanthrope thing. And I go, that's called Darwinism. And that's that person's stupidity taking over. Yeah, and we don't need that person. Right. Yeah. Do we sorry to murder an animal for that? Yeah, is heartbreaking. It's really sad, you know. And, of course, there are terrible things that have happened with all kinds of dogs, not just pitbulls, any any large dog. But if you look at the statistics on pit bull types, the reason that they even are what they are, is because you're not looking at one specific breed, you're looking at a type. So if you're looking if you're looking go, Well, 10 people in the last 10 years were killed by pit bulls, and only one person was killed by a Doberman. You got to look at the statistics are well, there's infinitely more Pitbull types. And there are the other type.

Chuck Shute: 1:08:24

Yeah, just go look at the percentages or whatever. Yeah,

Ace Von Johnson: 1:08:27

it's like it's like a landmass thing. Yeah. So and if you look statistically across America, aside from Chihuahuas, the most types of dogs you're going to find in pounds and shelters all across America are pit bulls. So it's no wonder that the statistics are as high as they are. And the problem is, the reason they are so high is because people are breeding them backyard breeders for the wrong reasons. And then they're also fighting them and they're using them illegally. And then they escape or they get out or they get dumped or abandoned because a lot of these dogs like my girl, they don't she probably would have been a fucking bait dog. Because a lot of them don't want to fight. So when they are useless, they get dumped, and then they end up in a shelter. And then more often than not my friend, they end up in a fucking garbage bag, which is why I don't like people and why I do like dogs. That's not the dog's fault.

Chuck Shute: 1:09:16

I agree. That's a person's fault. That is weird. And it's really weird to me. I don't know if you have this thing going on too. But like I can watch a horror movie and I can watch some guy getting ripped to shreds his guts flying all over. And I'm like, okay, like I know it's a movie. If I see an animal getting hurt in a movie. I can't I can't watch it. It's like it makes me sick to my stomach. It's weird.

Ace Von Johnson: 1:09:36

I always get I get turned off on any movie where especially if it's a dog Yeah, it's usually a dog versus a cat but any movie where like like someone's domestic pet is shot or hurt. You know and I can't think of anything right now and I'm okay with that. Yes, definitely

Unknown: 1:09:50

seen a movie for sure.

Ace Von Johnson: 1:09:52

You know, they cut like what is it that that john wick movie or something like that? Oh, they kill

Chuck Shute: 1:09:56

his dog. Yeah,

Ace Von Johnson: 1:09:57

yeah. And I wanted to Now throw the third one. And maybe during COVID So recently, I was like, Oh, I want to re watch these movies. But I remember they killed his dog and I

Unknown: 1:10:06

was like, You know what? I don't even want to see it.

Chuck Shute: 1:10:07

I don't even I don't even care. No, I don't need to see it.

Ace Von Johnson: 1:10:09

I know I liked the movie. I want to watch them but I don't want to revisit that scene.

Chuck Shute: 1:10:13

Absolutely. Well, you've done so much like the charity work you got a you got a Patreon. That people's check out neon coven new la guns coming out new faster pussycat coming out. The new Tiffany song if I'm curious, I like Tiffany. Anything else that I miss anything? rock album? That's great. Great. Is there anything else or anything I missed? I don't donate to a charity of your choosing. Okay,

Unknown: 1:10:39

just cause five bucks. 10 bucks. 1000

Chuck Shute: 1:10:41

bucks. Whatever it is. That's awesome. The better about yourself. Absolutely. I love it. Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate this. And thank you for having me. We'll have to keep in touch. Absolutely. Okay. Bye Bye. Take care. Well, that was just a blast. Chatting with ace. I was a fan before. Definitely a faster pussycat Nelly guns and even neon COVID. But I now just a full on Ace villain Johnson fan and I'll continue to follow his career wherever he goes. Make sure to follow him on social media so that you can keep up to and if you enjoyed this episode, check out some of the other episodes I've done like former la guns basis Adam Hamilton, who actually plays drums on their latest single. You can also hear my interview with Steve Riley, the drummer of the other version of La guns, and I got tons of other great in depth interviews to check out. Make sure to subscribe to the show so you don't miss any future episodes because I got some great guests lined up, assuming they don't cancel. And if you want to support the show, you can like or share my stuff on social media or write me a nice review on iTunes. Thank you so much for listening. And until next time, remember to shoot for the moon.