Ryan Roxie (Alice Cooper guitarist)

Episode 127- guitarist Ryan Roxie from Alice Cooper’s band! Ryan has quite an amazing career being a part of many different musical scenes and working with legendary musicians. He went from playing on the sunset strip with Candy to New York with Electric Angels to Seattle with Sweet Water. He also played with Gilby Clarke and Slash’s Snakepit, and of course his current gig with Alice Cooper. He also hosts his own podcast, In The Trenches with Ryan Roxie. In this episode he has great stories such as how Bret Michaels saved his guitar, auditioning a famous singer for Slash’s Snakepit, what Kiss and Bon Jovi “borrowed” from his band Electric Angels and more! 

0:00:00 - Intro
0:00:00 - Growing Up in Oakland 
0:04:49 - Marching Band Drummer
0:06:17 - Playing Guitar in Bay Area 
0:08:15 - L.A. Hair Metal Scene & Candy Formation
0:11:18 - Riki Rachtman, Cathouse & Red Camaro 
0:14:40 - Bret Michaels Saves Ryan's Guitar & Poison 
0:20:51 - Electric Angels & Moving to New York 
0:24:16 - Bruce Kulick & "You Put the X In Sex" 
0:25:30 - Jon Bon Jovi & "Bed of Roses" Lyric 
0:27:00 - Joining "Sweet Water" Seattle Band 
0:31:55 - Gilby Clarke Gets the GnR Gig 
0:34:43 - Touring with Gilby Clarke 
0:36:10 - Joining Alice Cooper's Band 
0:39:40 - Motley Crue Tour 
0:42:15 - Trying Out Singers with Slash's Snakepit 
0:44:36 - Playing with & Learning from Slash
0:47:35 - Solo Song "Me Generation"  
0:49:49 - Johnny Depp & Podcast Guests
0:51:20 - Fame, Success & Intellectuals 
0:54:55 - Ted Talk & Learning from Failure 
0:56:23 - Criticizing, Comparing & Copying 
0:58:22 - Supporting Other Podcasters & Musicians 
1:01:50 - System 12 Guitar Method 
1:05:38 - Appreciating the Ride 
1:09:35 - The Art of Elysium
1:11:35 - Playing Wonderwall with Joaquin Phoenix 
1:12:23 - Fanboying Out 
1:14:30 - Wrap Up

Ryan Roxie Website:
https://ryanroxie.com

The Art of Elysium Website:
https://www.theartofelysium.org

Chuck Shute Website:
http://chuckshute.com

Transcript

Chuck Shute: 0:12

Welcome to the show. My guest today is the very talented and amazing Ryan Roxy. So Ryan's had quite the career from early bands like candy and electric angels, to working with gilby Clarke and slash, and of course being the guitarist for Alice Cooper. So he's got some great stories like Bret Michaels saving his guitar, auditioning a famous singer for slashes snake pit. Plus, I like hearing his insight on success and fame. And he's also got a podcast of his own. So I'll shut up and let him tell the rest. Yeah, so tell me about that. You're born and raised in the Bay Area. And you grew up in Oakland Raider fan and you actually did you play Little League baseball with john madden son. That's pretty cool.

Unknown: 0:58

Wow, that's, that's

Ryan Roxie: 0:59

deep. You've gone deep inside down the rabbit hole, right?

Chuck Shute: 1:05

Yeah, no, I tell him. It's fascinating.

Ryan Roxie: 1:08

I grew up in the suburbs of Oakland, a place called Pleasanton. And it's so happened that the head coach of the Raiders during the 70s during the heyday, john madden lived in the same housing track as my family. Did. We all lived in cotton. Dang, what was it? Highland Oaks. Have we started

Chuck Shute: 1:29

Yeah, this is this is the this is the show? Why not?

Ryan Roxie: 1:32

Damn. Alright. I was I was waiting for Will I see it was recording now or? So we are going? Yeah. Let's just get right out of the gate. You you

Chuck Shute: 1:42

like to start at the beginning. That's kind of like the beat use group in Oakland. I don't want to I mean, cuz that's that area has changed a lot over the years. So just

Ryan Roxie: 1:51

oh, my God, it's changed so much for

Chuck Shute: 1:53

housing prices. I

Ryan Roxie: 1:54

grew up. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, when we moved there when we were first, I guess I moved there when I was two years old. So I didn't really know much about the property values back then. Sure. But the thing was, the houses were like affordable because it was just a little It was a suburb. It was a cow town. Really? Yeah. And the sort of track housing that I lived in the track housing unit would that we all lived in with cultus ax and little, you know, ways Apple would court and all this kind of stuff. Yeah, the bunch of the Oakland Raiders live there. Gene Upshaw lived right up the street. He lived in a nice house, though. He lived off of Hill Road. And that was kind of a nice place. But john madden, who was the head coach at the time, which probably didn't pay that much more than what my dad was making, at the time, it was kind of back then football was kind of like a working man's game, right? wasn't what it's like today. So his, his kids went to the same high school I did and same junior high and we started playing Little League. And I believe, john, Mike, I think was his older brother, Joey because it was Joey was the one I played, literally with. But then I remember Mike Madden, who was also john madden son, but older. He was my football flag football coach. In literally like fifth grade, we're I still remember to this day, I never really spoke of this memory. But but it does kind of come back to me. Every once in a while. I made this insane catch. Like, just like it was flag football. So it was like already, you know, no helmets, right? padding, nothing, but we were still kind of smashing each other, you know, without the pads and you know, the flags didn't mean all that much. But something happened where we had to go for a two point conversion or something. And the quarterback threw the ball I was playing wide receiver and the quarterback threw it, it hit off the shoulder pad of the opposing defensive back. And I sort of caught it and then just fell back into the end zone for either it was two points or it was the winning touch score. Touchdown. I'm not sure what it was. But I just remember john madden son going Damn,

Chuck Shute: 4:31

what a cat.

Ryan Roxie: 4:33

Wow, at that point in fifth grade, I thought I could, you know, maybe someday play for the Oakland Raiders. And then, you know, my body didn't think the same thing because I don't think I grew that much.

Chuck Shute: 4:47

So great. So then music. Yeah. So music so you get into music. You came from a musical family. Your father played the trumpet. And I thought this was I thought this was interesting. Your mom played the drums. That seems kind of progressive. For I don't know, many moms that played drums I think she was it was she in marching band or something.

Ryan Roxie: 5:04

She was in the marching band. Yeah, she was on, she was on the snare drum. And I had to work my way up when I joined school band because I started on the marching tymphany which is the heaviest friggin thing ever in the world to carry around for this, you know, we used to do the halftime shows, and that that was the one thing about my high school growing up in the Bay Area is that we had a a music teacher that was very revered as sort of this marching band halftime show type of choreography, he put all that stuff together, and we did parades and stuff like that. So like, in freshman year, I started out on the marching tymphany, which was so so so heavy, but then I kind of worked my way up all the way to the front line snare drum, because if you were on the snare line, you know, one of the five snare drummers then you were kind of like the shit of the of the marching band. But you know, at the end of the day, we had to wear those really. Yeah, you tip looking type hats and you never really were the shit.

Chuck Shute: 6:15

No. So and you want to be more like a rock star. You were in a you know, Peter Frampton shipwreck, so you bolt to LA at 17. And you couldn't even get into the clubs. So you're hanging out at the rainbow like the parking lot. That's where the party would be after. And this sounds amazing. You said like rat and Motley Crue and the guys from do his band would just be hanging out.

Ryan Roxie: 6:38

We would. That was the thing because I was playing guitar. Before I left for LA I was you know, playing in my own bands and I had a band up in the Bay Area called fair warning. And you can tell we were heavily influenced by Van Halen. And you know, I would do it all I'd wear the, you know, the knee pads and the, you know, the striped shirts and whatever. Edward Van Halen was worried at that moment, you know, David Lee Roth was okay, you know, bandanas around the knees, or whatever, I was doing the same So, and the rest of the band was as well. So we were able to get a little bit of traction or at least experience and we did some shows with Joe Satriani, his band up in the Bay Area, clean up for them, he was in a power pop band at the time called the squares. And so it was a cool band that he had together. It was like imagine Van Halen meets the police. And that was Joe Satriani, his first band

Chuck Shute: 7:43

that sounds amazing.

Ryan Roxie: 7:45

And we would we would open up for them and so I knew what I wanted to do. I didn't know you know, if I could do it up there in the Bay Area, it turns out that there were so many other bands that ended up doing it in such a big way. You know, there was such a thrash scene that was going on and and you know, I was Metallica rose up from there it but but I just went down as soon as I could, for a number of reasons. But you know, the main was to pursue music The main one was was just to get get as a bay area, guy Gad of my world where I was and jump into a new world of music. And so I got to dive down into Los Angeles at a very cool time. It was right around a transitional time because it was the I came down right when those bands like motley and rat, and, you know, Ronnie, Ronnie James Dio, Vivian Campbell was in the blue guitar player in that band at that time, all these like, rock and roll like icons, you know, they were so big at that point. But they were just getting onto that superstardom level and then there was almost like a reset. So it was right before her hair metal scene.

Chuck Shute: 9:02

It was kind of a second wave you said like poison and faster Pussycat, you kind of widely open for a lot of those guys. Yeah, yeah.

Ryan Roxie: 9:09

The band that I got in at the very first band out of the out of the gate was a band called candy who had come from those from playing with bands like wasp and rat and then that band happened to have gilby Clarke in the band.

Chuck Shute: 9:25

Didn't they pick you because you guys look the same. You have similar jackets and hair. So yeah, your your work

Ryan Roxie: 9:32

very much like that. Brady Bunch episode of Johnny Bravo. I know I get the black leather jacket was bought from the same store that all of us we all shopped for our black hair dye at the same sort of beauty supply store. We all bought our Aqua net the same unscented can at the same drugstore. So yeah, we all kind of fit together. And then luckily all of our musical back backgrounds and our musical influences really meshed well together. gilby being from the Midwest and being Ohio, he had a bit more of that punk rock a little bit like pretenders meets. You know, Johnny, Johnny thunders meets the Ramones. And then me and Jonathan Jonathan had originally the bass player and principal songwriter come from the Bay area as well. So we had a lot of that Bay Area, sort of great music, like huge spectrum of music, a lot of different types of music, for to use as influences. And so we had that. And then john Schubert, the drummer, the visual timekeeper, if you will, he was, you know, born and raised in LA. So we had all those great la influences, and it all meshed together. Because we liked really heavy guitars. We liked really large hair like Motley Crue early Motley Crue too fast for love was like such a big album for me. Such a big influence. And there was, we all loved cheap trick. We all had that sort of pop sensibility, but liking it with a bit more of a heavier or greedier type of guitar tone.

Chuck Shute: 11:16

Yeah. So how did you said that Ricky Rachman, the host, the Headbangers, future host of Headbangers ball at the time auditioned for candy as a singer. That sounds interesting. And then so how did you to become friends because usually when I don't get the job, I don't become friends with the person that, you know, turn me down.

Ryan Roxie: 11:34

Ricky was such a cool personality that, you know, you couldn't not be friends with him. After that audition, and he did a great job at the audition. It wasn't like that, you know, Oh, you don't cut it? No, he was he was really good. We just at the time, we're going through a lot of auditions with that band. And I remember, you know, when we ended up deciding on a singer, I think we did one or two shows with that singer. And then it was like, Wait a second. This is it really works when gilby is back in the band. Because gilby wasn't there for those auditions. He started to say like, you know, I think I might want to try and do something on my own. So that's when gilby came back. And gilby became our singer for candy during that sort of second wave of candy. But Ricky Rachman, he is you know, Headbangers ball a lot. Yeah. Known for that. But, you know, shortly after he tried out for candy, he started this club called the cat house. Yeah. And that just became sort of like the spawning ground for all of hair metal, he really did create an environment and atmosphere that was really instrumental in that whole movement, I feel. And I was lucky to be like, right there. Like by his side on so many of those historical Tuesday nights, because, yeah, we just became friends. We came across some real good buds and actually got almost arrested in his in his red Camaro one night because I borrowed it to go because I had forgotten something at my apartment. I forgotten like a pair of pants. I was loaned I, someone had loaned me and I saw, I'll give you back your pants, so you can just take my car. And on the way from because he was DJing at a club that night, it wasn't cat house. It was a different club. I think it might have been what was it? Was that night at the Roxy or used to be? It was one of those clubs. That was right up on sunset. Okay. And they they actually made a movie about it. Night at the Roxbury it was that that, that that that sort of area, that venue. And so I drove that to the apartment in his red Camaro. And of course, we drive a red car in Los Angeles and you have hair that looks like mine at that time. And yeah, like, completely sober. Everything's fine, straight, narrow. It's just that I'm borrowing a car. That happens to be non registered and could be stolen.

Chuck Shute: 14:18

Oh, whoops. So

Ryan Roxie: 14:20

I end up in a holding tank at the Hollywood police department. And Ricky has to come and bail me out because it's a big he had just bought the car from this girl who had registered the car. Ricky hadn't registered it yet. So at that, that little window of time Okay, literally a stolen car.

Chuck Shute: 14:38

So yeah, speaking of stolen Tell me the story about when your guitar was stolen and how you somehow you come to meet Bret Michaels through this Oh,

Ryan Roxie: 14:46

wow. Bad Hey, you know that story that's a that's a really undercover Yeah, Brett and I do always have Breton Michaels to thank for finding my It was a red Just I've been as destroyer to Candy Apple red. If I brought it down for the Bay Area, it was kind of like a copy of an explorer, right. And it had humbucker pickups. That's the reason why I liked it so much. And think they made blue ones. And they made red ones tonight, and I actually still own a blue one, but that red one got stolen out of the back of my, my truck, you know, and I just left it there. I, again one of those times where I just I'm gonna run up, get this something and then come right back down. And when I came back down, there's a broken glass and, you know, someone had so So who do you go to, to find this, you know, and I'm with some with a buddy of mine. And he's like, we got to go to poison. They know everybody in this town now because because they've been promoting the hell out of themselves. So they happen to live right across the street. We live we live right behind the Grumman theater in Hollywood, at a place called the Madison and they lived at the orange towers. So it's conveniently right across the street. And so we go into this apartment, and it's literally like it's a crack house minus the crack because they weren't nobody was doing gragg but you might think it was because there was no furniture. It was just mattresses on the wall. And there was basically lyrics and graffiti on the, you know, on the inside of the apartment walls. And that was a whole band was living there at that time. And it was before they they actually had cc in the band because their original guitar player from from I think,

Chuck Shute: 16:40

Pennsylvania

Ryan Roxie: 16:41

Enya had to go back. Yeah, he went back. Matt Smith, I think it was girlfriend got pregnant. They had a baby. I don't know what the whole deal was. But I'm sitting there and Brett's? I remember sitting on this mattress. He's like, oh, tell me about the guitar. Okay, I'll, I'll put some phone calls out. And this is the back of the time where there was an actual phone. Sure. And I don't know how they could afford a phone. And it must have been the only bill that they had because it certainly weren't paying for any sort of cable or any sort of,

Chuck Shute: 17:11

and you said like their place was like you kind of lived in a shithole. But their place made your place look nice. Yeah, yeah. Well, I

Ryan Roxie: 17:19

kind of felt a little bit privileged. I, you know, I lived on the 11th floor where, you know, I had a couple roommates and we lived in this place called Super thrills. Maybe it was 1205. I live in a couple apartments in that building here. But getting back to the orange tower, I remember Brett just saying, Yeah, I think we can find it because, you know, we do know a lot of people. And so literally within two or three phone calls, some guy was on it, some one of one of his buddies had had heard that this guy was like, trying to pawn a guitar that he had just gotten. And so he turned us on to the to the thief. And you know, the buddy of mine that I was with at the time, he was, you know, he just wanted to kill the guy. And I said, No, no, no, let's just get the guitar back. So the guy ends up handing us our guitar back in two different pieces because he had dismantled and he had already started to dismantle and parted out. But you know, at the end of the day, Bret Michaels got my guitar back. Yeah, eventually got put back together. And when I joined candy, he got painted pink, because that was the thing. Another thing about that band candy, we all had pink guitars. gilby had a pink Les Paul, I had the pink destroyer. Jonathan had a pink Thunderbird bass. And our drummer had a pink drum kit. So it was pretty, you know? I don't know. Pink? Yeah, I guess you could say,

Chuck Shute: 18:46

right, but let's say you're,

Ryan Roxie: 18:48

I still remember to this day, Bret Michaels playing me some of those. Yeah,

Chuck Shute: 18:52

I was gonna ask you about that. So he's playing the looked at Look what the cat dragged in demos and their guitar player went to Pennsylvania. Why didn't you say hey, maybe I should join this band. I mean, you could have been the guitarist for poison.

Ryan Roxie: 19:04

I don't know if I could have. I think that the opportunity was there. I'm you know, I don't know. It was one of those situations where I was already in a band at that point with a guy named Jeff Scott. And Jeff Scott was signed to Epic Records and Epic Records was the home of cheap trick. So I was by you know, six degrees of separation I was on the same label as Cheap Trick okay in a way so I was playing guitar and I in actually through Jeff Scott that's how the guys in candy all came about because they knew they knew Jeff and they knew this guy guitar that kind of looked like them and a lot of the Jeff Scott fans and said Hey, man, you look should look like you should be in candy. So that's how that all ended working out. But with poison. You know, I do wonder about that every once in a while because CC and I have the exact same influence as well. We're both Cheap Trick disciples. Love Rick Nielsen. We love style. We love songwriting. And but I'm, you know, look, things worked out great for poison and for you I'm pretty damn happy with the way my journey went Yeah, it's gone so you know, right it's gone left right. Us Europe I mean I've been doing it for a while and I still get to say I'm doing it which I'm happy about. But honestly, you know, poison is a great a great band to be a part of I think because they share a lot of the same influences I didn't I always thought that Brett was super nice and obviously I owe him for finding my guitar.

Chuck Shute: 20:49

Yeah, but so can't anyway so back to the your journey so candy kind of breaks up because gilby goes off and starts kills for thrills. And then you guys formed the electric angels with a different singer. And I thought this was kind of smart you move to New York, since you know there's so many bands, rock bands in LA, you know, probably a different you know, different scene try something different and it work you get signed. But then tell me about this was a true Bruce Nova was

Ryan Roxie: 21:13

out of the move to New York. I don't know what was out of ingenuity, it was more out of desperation. Because but it were really, yeah, we had really run the course, for being in LA. You know, during that scene, we were we were doing shows with every single band, it seemed every single week would get a deal. And every time we would make a demo, they would say, oh man, we really like it. But you have one more, just one more. So basically getting interest but passed on by every single label, but still being able to get a following together and grow a following and do all these really cool opening shows. Like we were the support act for almost every cool British band that would come into town. You know, whether it was it scream, which was another club like, like cat house that really, it was like if you could think of scream Dale Gloria was the owner of scream and she would put us on these amazing shows that we had bands like belong in the angel. They had you know, James diction would play there quite often. That was a bit more indie. Okay, scream was because it was located downtown. It was a little bit more of the indie rock, but it was still had, you know, lots of heavy guitars and lots of goth

Unknown: 22:39

you know,

Ryan Roxie: 22:40

the dam to be opened up for as well. One of the biggest shows electric angels opened up for a john at some Ford theater was Zodiac mine warp. And so we had a bunch of cool shows. It's just that we never got, you know, always the bridesmaid. Never the bride. I never got that big spray. Yeah, saying Yeah, with electric gauges. So we said, You know what, here's this opportunity for us to go east with everyone's coming West. Let's let's try it. Because we because we know what's for us here. We don't know what's worse there. And within three shows, we got signed by one of the labels that had already passed on us,

Chuck Shute: 23:23

right different AR rep or something. Yeah.

Ryan Roxie: 23:25

Different a&r guys. Yeah, completely different staff. It was the same. It was the same label. But yeah, they had passed on us in Los Angeles. And then we got a record deal. Again, with one of those really cool. Support gigs. We were We were the support act for dogs demore.

Chuck Shute: 23:44

And Mother Love Bone to write and Mother Love Bone

Ryan Roxie: 23:47

was the middle act. And I think the record label came to see the middle act thinking that we were mother loved Bob, when they found out that we weren't they were like, Oh, we really liked you guys a lot. Can we sign you? So again? Bret Michaels thank you for the guitar. Mother Love Bone. Thank you for the record.

Chuck Shute: 24:13

So it wasn't true. You were managed by Bruce Kulick of kiss for a little while and then

Ryan Roxie: 24:18

we weren't managed by Bruce but Bruce actually produced a round of our demos

Chuck Shute: 24:23

okay, but so did you have a song called "You Put the X in Sex" cuz Kiss later had a song called "Let's Put the X in Sex." Did they steal that from you guys?

Ryan Roxie: 24:32

Coincidental...

Chuck Shute: 24:33

Oh coincidental? okay

Ryan Roxie: 24:35

that's where we figured out one of Gene Simmons many famous quotes over the years but it's truth. You cannot copyright a song title.

Chuck Shute: 24:51

Because it doesn't sound the same. But yeah, it's similar...

Ryan Roxie: 24:54

It doesn't sound the same but it was very, very curious of how we put out a song called "You Put the X in Sex" and then literally three months later or however long it was, you know, Bruce plays obviously the demos to the to the band. This is what I've been working on. This is cool. They put out a song called "Let's Put the X In Sex" - very Spinal Tap- it's j

Chuck Shute: 25:23

it's just a little little twist but another thing st that litt that was kinda interesting about electric angels was Jon Bon Jovi was a fan and he kind of stole something too- I don't know if this was a tribute or whatever but his song I mean "Bed of Roses." - it's from your song"our bed of roses has become a bed of nails" from your song"True Love and Other Fairy Tales?"

Ryan Roxie: 25:44

Yes, yes, the song It was the ballad off the album, and I'm really really proud of that song. Tony Visconti was the producer of that album, and he did such a great a string arrangement on that song that I feel everybody should, you know, give it a fair shake. I mean, God, if we would have, we would have had a quarter of the amount of the success that Bon Jovi had with that song. Yeah, with his song, his version of it, or his line of it

Chuck Shute: 26:15

is again, it was

Ryan Roxie: 26:16

Just a line of a song. He sure was clever. And you know, Jonathan Daniel - our bass player is a very clever guy. I mean, he always has been and he remains to this day been very clever. He's a manager now and sure and just bands like Green Day - he manages Panic at the disco. He manages...

Chuck Shute: 26:35

Train to the Manage train. Yeah.

Ryan Roxie: 26:37

Yeah. And I know I'm sure there's there's more bands, right. Not mentioning now. But yeah, he's, he's done really well for himself. And, you know, like I said, his, his songwriting, his lyrics were always noteworthy.

Chuck Shute: 26:51

Absolutely.

Ryan Roxie: 26:52

And definitely had some influence on songs for me later, when I was went off to do my own solo stuff.

Chuck Shute: 26:59

Yeah. So before you do the solo stuff, electric angels. It doesn't work out. But did I hear this right? Were you in a band? There's a Band in Seattle. I'm from Seattle. I grew up in Seattle in the 90s there was a band called Sweetwater Did I hear you say you were in that band? Or you tried out? What's the story there? Cuz I love that band. I was I did not know you remember of it.

Ryan Roxie: 27:18

Sweetwater was I met them, right when they the tail end of them recording superfriends, which was off that album spied by Dave jerden. And I was able to get into that band. They want to add a guitar player because the guitar player that they're the lead guitar player that they had had for that album for the first album, they you know, they were friends, but he wasn't playing with them, you know, so much anymore. And they had sort of whittled it down to a four piece, but then they wanted that extra guitar player. And I related to those guys, so well, I met him down in Los Angeles and went to the studio and I'm listening to these mixes that they're playing of superfriends I'm going this album is really, really good. They invited me up to Seattle, I said, Why don't we come up and jam and if it works, if the jam works out good, we have a gig because we could do the gig as a four piece or you know, what if you know the stuff, maybe you can just, you know, step in with us. And I said, You know, I always want to be, you know, over prepared when I go for a gig if, if, if at all possible. You know, so I really studied the songs I really got into it. And I was ready for the gig. So the audition basically turned into a gig. And there was I guess, I guess it was a year or two years we were doing it I would fly up to from Los Angeles I would fly up to Seattle and do these sort of weekend warrior gigs all around like in Bellingham and other these college places. Right yeah. And, and had such a great following. People loved their their music, and then when superfriends came out the radio really support it. So it was really cool to be part of a different sort of scene. But but a scene nonetheless because I'd been part of that hair metal scene, right. You know during the GNR days and the LA guns and faster pussycat days, but then to go up and catch this sort of wave of the end of the sort of grunge era In that sense, because there was, I remember, remember bands like presidents of the United States, yeah. posies, all these bands were like really, you know, hitting on all cylinders. And, of course, you know, Soundgarden and, and Nirvana had taken off crazy like so. Super, super friends and Sweetwater. The band was at that time, managed by Susan silver management. So that helped out You know, who also managed it managed Soundgarden at the time. So all those things kind of worked out. And then when it came time to right around the time that they were going to go do a I think they did a super long sort of Van tour across the US with was it some really credible indie bands and stuff.

Chuck Shute: 30:28

Okay.

Ryan Roxie: 30:29

I got I got the audition for Alice. Oh, time. So it or not, it wasn't the audition, but it was it was like, what was right around 96 Yeah, so Okay, I got I got that whole opportunity to get in with Alice Cooper. So I had to make that choice and the choice you know, again, so many people saying, you know, here's this new band, you know, you're relatively new band at Sweetwater been around in Seattle for a while, but people were just starting to hear about him. Why are you going to play with Alice Cooper and again, I just one of those things I from my roots. I just felt that Alice he had a lot of gas in the tank left. Sure. And when you have albums like Alice's had over the years, and you see the desire that he has to, you know, to go out and still do it, it was it was definitely the right decision that I made for sure. But so

Chuck Shute: 31:25

Meanwhile, Tanya I

Ryan Roxie: 31:27

I always have a soft spot in my heart for for Sweetwater because they're the greatest guys in the world they made that album is so great. I love it made, you know, the album's that they've made subsequent to that are really great as well. So you know, it is Sweetwater just one of those bands that was happy to be a part of there, you know?

Chuck Shute: 31:47

Yeah, I guess probably most people don't know they are but I was grew up in Sal. They play him on the radio all the time. And I had that sweet superfriends album. I loved it. But so Meanwhile, your friend gilby told me this story, how I love the way he tells you that he gets the Guns and Roses gig. He doesn't just call you up and say tell you he kind of does it in a clever way. Right?

Ryan Roxie: 32:06

Yeah, he will. Because we'd always call each other, you know, we kept tight after playing for so many years together. And then we moved to New York, and he was in Los Angeles. So we'd always call each other we had a gig, we were on a tour and say, Hey, I got a gig in you know, when we came in with electric angels, we'd always invite him down to whatever gig we had in town, we'd play like the palace in Hollywood, we'd open up for hurricane or maybe we're on tour with danger, danger, and we played, you know, it would always be a club, a bigger club or something like that. If we cross paths. So he so he gives us a call. He goes, Hey, man, I'm coming into town tomorrow night, and I got a gig. And I'm like, really? Where are you playing? You know, place called Madison Square Garden. And, and the thing was, is like this was before, everybody had an Instagram account where they could Twitter and times, you know, you know, in whenever you've had any sort of news, it just went right there. It took time to trickle in know, people find out about it and stuff. So I was one of the first people to find out that, you know, he was actually in it because his first gig was the night before in Boston at the Boston Garden. So you know, he goes yeah, I'm I'm up in Boston right now playing the Boston Garden, in Guns and Roses. And I was like, oh, man, that's the perfect band for you, dude. You got it, because it is the perfect band. Yeah. gilby it's like it's it's has all the same influences that he grew up. It's it's heavy stuff. But it's also has that, you know, that punk rock attitude. And that was what I feel was always the charm of the band. It's what, what kept them from being, you know, the little over board, heavy metal, it kept them that kind of kept in that heavy rock and roll metal sort of right in that gray area, which is the perfect area to be in, because at the end of the day, they also had songs that you could would stick in your head and humming along and slash would write riffs that would you know, sort of, you'd wake up, you could still hear it in your head. So you know, he has the really great band for gilby and subsequently a great band that I've always had some sort of connection with in one way or another whether it's going back playing with gilby or then later years playing with slash

Chuck Shute: 34:43

Yeah, and so but that first solo record that gilby did pawnshop guitars. I loved that right. I still love that record. I think it's brilliant. I think it's super underrated. And you got to play on that and tour with him. This so this is interesting because people you probably think that you know Your first big shows were with Alice but you actually got to do some pretty big shows with gilby like he toured South America and open up for Aerosmith and playing soccer stadiums. That

Ryan Roxie: 35:08

sounds amazing. One of the Yeah, one of the biggest, one of the biggest shows I've ever done to this day was opening up with gilby Clarke band and gilby Clarke in the tequila brothers opening up for Aerosmith. The week that guildies album, I think the single had dead flowers out and Axl sings on that track. Yeah, it was released in Argentina, and it goes to number one. So basically gilby has number one song did another hand where the support act for Aerosmith. Wow, it's a one two punch. And yeah, that was it was a sold out. Football, I say football now that I live in Europe, but a sold out soccer stadium. And yeah, it was super memorable. I mean, I've obviously been very thankful and lucky to play as many big gigs with Alice over the years. But that one was my first sort of monster gig. And yeah,

Chuck Shute: 36:09

so how did Alice find you that? Is it through gilby? Or was there some other connection? Okay, he because originally he wanted you and gilby right.

Ryan Roxie: 36:17

There was an idea floating around they that Alice would like to have two guitar players that already knew each other that could play off each other, which me guilty. And I always played well together, we'd been in bands for years, whether it was candy, or then his solo band, who we played, you know, toured many, many years together. And it I think it would have worked out great, it would have been definitely a more rock and roll sort of sleazy type early Alice Cooper line, that type of vibe. Unfortunately, gilby couldn't do the gig because he was still tied to his own record label that he was with at the time. And so they just did a sort of a call out for auditions. And I gilby gave me the green light, give me the thumbs up, he says, dude, you got to go get this gig, this is some one of those gigs. It's, you know, sort of like, a game changer. Mm hmm. And so at the time, I knew that Reb Beach was at the audition, and he just had nailed it. And Alice really liked him because he wasn't just a great player. He's a great personality, that you know, super funny ask guy and tells amazing stories. And a lot of times it's it's more about the hang, you know, it's about the, it's about the commodity of being in a band, it's about being able to sit, you know, for eight hours with the same guys and gals, you know, in a band situation in a dress room, because you're only really on stage for what an hour hour and a half every single night. So it's the other 22 and a half hours that you have to learn how to hang with the other people and read was great at that. And I filled the role like the old school guy, the the original bands, sort of more just laying down some chords. And when I had a solo, I'd make it really legato and try to make it as classic rock and 70s as possible. Then when the shredding stuff came in the shredder type of songs that Alice has, you know, as well in his repertoire. Reb just nailed it. And it's To this day, we've always had that sort of understanding with the guitar players that are in the lineup of the Alice Cooper band like everybody knows their role. And although I'm I'm very comfortable and happy to play a shredding type of solo. I know that you know, Nita Strauss his strength is that yeah, exactly what she's amazing. So who decides like

Chuck Shute: 38:47

because now it's not just yeah, it's three guitar players

Ryan Roxie: 38:50

with three guitar players in the current lineup with Tommy Henrickson, Nita Strauss and myself. Yeah, and it's really no decision that has to be made. We just kind of know as soon as we hear the song, we go yeah, this is definitely a need to sell or this is a Tommy so this is very rock and roll. This is this has that sort of old school. Just you know, whether it's Chuck Berry or whether you want to say a little Johnny thunders vibe to it. Yeah, that that's cop Tommy. Er, this is original band stuff. This is this as Roxy on it. So I mean, and Alice at the same point, he loves guitar solos. So he's one of those guys that says, Yeah, dude, everyone gets a solo. Everyone gets a solo.

Chuck Shute: 39:29

Nice.

Ryan Roxie: 39:30

Oprah Winfrey of being in a rock.

Chuck Shute: 39:34

That's awesome. So rock,

Ryan Roxie: 39:35

she gets us everybody gets a solo.

Chuck Shute: 39:38

So when you toured with Motley Crue in the Alice Cooper band, was that one of the highlights for you? I mean, you were a big fan of crew and you said they'd come and hang out in the dressing room like What memories Do you have those those days?

Ryan Roxie: 39:50

Our dressing room on that whole entire tour was basically Switzerland. We were like, you know, everybody the band. Molly had four different tour buses. They had, they would travel, you know, they had their everybody had their own handler. And then they come together before the show, they'd all meet, they get on the stage, they rocket and then they come off, they do their meet and greets and all that kind of stuff. And then they go on to their respective vans before the show, you know, he being that every band member in that in Mali had their own dressing room, they wanted a place to hang because that's where it's what it's all about, you know, in his day, it's about the hang. And the Alice Cooper dressing room, that sort of band dressing room was was sort of the safe spot for everybody to come in. So it would be very, very common for you know, Tommy and Nicky and, and Vince or, you know, an MC to like each pop in you know, for a little while. Hey, what's happening tonight? Okay, cool. And then then just, you know, go off to their own dressing room and, you know, do their thing, but,

Chuck Shute: 40:54

yeah, so crazy. I'm just totally picturing the Wayne's World. Just Yeah, come on, in, hang out, like, hang out with Alice Cooper. Oh, okay. The fact that we got to

Ryan Roxie: 41:02

do the whole tour for twice I think we did two runs with that. Yeah. And do the Australian run with them, the Australian leg with them? Do the European leg with them, then do the US twice with them? was a real was a real treat? Because it wasn't like this. Okay, this one show? No, no, this, this is a whole two or you get to know the band, you get to know, the SAT, we definitely knew the set. They knew our set and we knew their set by the end of the tour. And just a lot of cool experiences, although those one offs that you do with bands and you're lucky to do ones, you know, every once in a while with like a supergroup like queen. Those are super memorable as well, like just our last sort of tour since everything stopped was the Australian tour. And we did a show with Queen down in Sydney, in the beginning of 2020. Right before everything shut down. And that was still you know, to this day, one of those bucket lists memorable gigs, you know, being able to play in front of them.

Chuck Shute: 42:12

Yeah, that's amazing. Well, speaking of bucket lists, I mean, you did some other stuff too, in the 90s like dad's porno mag and he did the 70s cover band glam nation... but Slash. You got to tell me about this. I'm a huge Guns and Roses fan. You played on the"Ain't Life Grand" album. And I heard you say that you guys tried out several singers before you decided on Rod Jackson. Is there anyone memorable that you tried out? At that point? You remember? Wow.

Ryan Roxie: 42:40

What was the band with the chainsaw? Jesse...

Chuck Shute: 42:42

Jesse James Dupree? From Jackyl?

Ryan Roxie: 42:44

Yes, Jackyl. From Jackyl? That was the band. Yeah, great singer man what and really had a good handle on the songs that we did. The thing was, I mean, when Rod Jackson came in, he was just, he immediately fit all he ticked all the boxes. He had soul. He had vibe. He had a little bit of Kravitz in him, but he also had a lot of, just just pure power in his voice? So he had... but I do remember Jesse being really, really great tape because he sang on some of the same songs and the early songs that we demoed up, a lot of the singers would sing like what's your version? We've got many melody lines. We wouldn't give them any lyrics whose write your lyrics and melodies song and I remember him doing it right out there was I mean, there was I believe we had some female vocalists try out as well. I mean, do you familiar with Beth Hart? Hmm. credible voice you know, just really again, just that strong strong ass voice and what else?

Chuck Shute: 44:04

Yeah, it was a cool

Ryan Roxie: 44:08

thing was right when we did find rod and Rod found us or rod just kind of walked in from I think he actually walked from Santa Monica at the time. Because, you know, he was living out there by the beach. And he said, Yeah, I just took a walk. I just thought I make it all the way over to Beverly Hills come walking in from the street. And he just didn't didn't leave you didn't have to stay there for the next couple years. You know?

Chuck Shute: 44:35

Yeah. So and you're you're working with slash and he's kind of like your boss. But you said you would you say you call it like slash time. Like he would kind of start later so is he like the coolest boss ever? Like I would just that's got to be weird

Ryan Roxie: 44:49

having Hooper's the coolest boss.

Chuck Shute: 44:50

Okay, so slash the second cool if you

Ryan Roxie: 44:52

want cool bosses that you know Alice Cooper is the coolest because, yeah, oh, he takes all the same boxes. That's Last as as far as being mega talented and, and I could learn a lot from obviously, Slash is probably the best guitar teachers I've ever had over the years. And not that he ever, like sat down and said, Okay, this is how, you know, I just would watch, observe him play. He observed me play, we'd play together, we'd work out the parts together. And that's how you get better as a musician and a guitarist. So I feel that, you know, Slash has all these great qualities, as far as you know, I'm inspired by noted to help me get to be a better musician. But he's horrible. I don't know if it's true today. But he was always horrible on time- Because we'd have we'd have a band call at 12 noon, every single day at Snake Pit studios. And they would be times at around 3pm. Or maybe four, maybe getting into the early afternoon, early evening, late afternoon, he would come down from his own house because we practiced at his house at Snake Pit studios, so he would make it out there y'all Sorry, guys. I'm sorry, man. Well, but But then again, we'd make up for it. Because we'd end up jamming until like about you know, 1112 at night, and then we'd go you know, probably eat at the rainbow at that time. You say, dude, I was late today. See this one at the Rainbow.

Chuck Shute: 46:31

That's interesting, because I always thought when Guns and Roses would go on late, I always thought I always blamed Axl. But maybe it was Slash or maybe it was both of them. But that's kind of funny.

Ryan Roxie: 46:39

I think there might have been a little rub off of Axl because I because I think Axl was notoriously been the one. I'll tell you who's not late and ever been late for a gig is Coop. Real. How has it ever been? Yeah, it is a stickler for me. I mean, I I try to be as on time as possible. Whether it's you know, doing a podcast whether it's doing

Unknown: 47:03

now you're right on time today?

Ryan Roxie: 47:05

Well, I try to be I understand, you know, 1520 Yeah, that's fine. It's rockin all time. But when you get on to, you know, a couple hours I

Chuck Shute: 47:15

get nervous sometimes. Yeah, like I had turabian. And I think he just, I don't know, like, I just forgot or something. And I was like, Oh, God, is he canceling on me? And so I just you know,

Ryan Roxie: 47:25

I'd have he's just always busy doing beard maintenance problems.

Chuck Shute: 47:30

I love him. Those are my favorite episodes. But so your solo stuff. You This is cool. You have a Why is your your box set? It's called the Roxy box. Shouldn't it be called the Roxy boxy? He is that maybe that? I don't know. I just I wanted to call it that. But don't tell me about the song or

Ryan Roxie: 47:49

to stick then. I don't know crimes but doesn't rhyme. I don't know the Roxy box. It's almost like it. No, I

Chuck Shute: 47:55

like it.

Unknown: 47:56

I don't know. It's it's like

Chuck Shute: 47:57

the song. Me generation. These are some pretty ballsy lyrics. You talk about the spoon fed brain dead? This is kind of like a startingly starting? What is the word startingly? accurate description of our youth? Like, is that? Is that what it's about? Or?

Ryan Roxie: 48:13

Well, the the line is spoon fed brain dead. Idle population and idle instead of ID LE Yeah, d o L. I, like, you know, like American Idol. Population? Yeah. So it can go both ways. And again, that's probably a little bit of lyrical influence from from JD from electric Angel days, you know, but yeah, me generation is one of those efuse because so many people write f us to the older generation, this is my nephew to the younger generation. You know, just stay on your toes. I'm sure. Like you got the thing that every younger generation has on the older generation. Is that the young? Yeah, right. They're young. They are they take more chances, there's more risk. But what does the older generation have? We're a little bit like the old bull sitting up on the hill, you know, and we can just walk down and screw y'all. And the thing is, we've got the experience. So there's, there's definitely a advantage to having an experience as long as you're willing to take the risk on and have a bit of that attitude that you have when you're younger, and part of the younger generation. So that's what me generation basically is it's my little nephew to the younger generation, and hopefully they're up for the challenge.

Chuck Shute: 49:46

Yeah, for sure. Well, so you do your own podcast in the trenches with Ryan, Roxy, who are some of the favorite guests that you've had on your show and who's on your bucket list like would you have Johnny Depp on because you've performed with him like think

Ryan Roxie: 49:59

giant would be Great, that would be fun.

Chuck Shute: 50:01

I'd be a good guest to have

Ryan Roxie: 50:02

i i'd have to, you know, if DEP was to come on, I'd have to make sure that we get a special EQ microphone because his voice is so soft and low, that there would definitely be some re cueing in post I believe. But his because what comes out of his mouth is always pretty fucking clever. he's a he's a, he's a smart dude is a very kind, dude. And very giving, like as far as just generous with his time and with his talent. And and honestly one of the most prepared guys that's ever been jamming with us with Alice. But yeah, Johnny's would be a great guest. As far as a bucket list guest. Brian May from Queen, he's on my bucket yet. I think Who else? I mean, I just I just had some really cool people that it has inspired me over the years, like, comedians I've had. Doug Stan hope just had him on recently, and he's super ass, like an intelligent, funny, and has a lot of great stories, because we're all coming from the same generation. I've been able to bring some intellectuals. Yeah, like Jordan Peterson.

Chuck Shute: 51:22

Tell I'm like halfway through that episode. Tell me about that, though. Cuz I heard him say on another show or something where he was taught, he was talking to Matthew McConaughey. And he had an interesting point. He said, when you're famous, it's gotta be difficult to distinguish whether people like you because you're famous, or whether they genuinely like you. And it may be difficult for them to even figure that out. Do you have that issue? Sometimes that people you feel like? Are they just being nice to me? Because I'm the guitarist for Alice Cooper? Or do they genuinely like me does that? You know what, I

Ryan Roxie: 51:53

honestly don't think that my fame is on that level is as a McConaughey. I mean, you know, if I do the podcast and starts getting really popular in the next, in the next few years, maybe we can taste that. But you know what I think people like you, or don't like you for who you are. At this point. For me, it I haven't gotten that gratuitous thing. But I've seen it with, you know, the guys that I have played with like slash or Alice, I see that there is a big, you know, they're household names, when you get to reach that name of a household status, it's, it's probably really difficult to met to deal with. Luckily, I feel that I have this kind of sweet spot of popularity, because I'm always popular an hour after our show. But then, you know, in the morning, I can just go back to being the guy in the sweatpants, in the hotel gym, trying to, you know, trying to keep myself in shape now. So, you know, I feel that getting back to these intellectuals that I've had on the in the trenches podcast, guys like Jordan Peterson was really cool to introduce to our rock and roll audience, because I think rock and rollers get a sort of a bad rap sometimes, of not being as in tune and on top of things as we are. But I mean, think about it, we don't, we get to be on stage for an hour, hour and a half. So that leaves us, you know, a bunch of hours during the day to sort of observe the world. And, you know, observing the world, we see all the same crazy shit that our fans do all the same crazy shit that goes on in the world, all the crazy political shit, all the crazy religious stuff. So we have opinions about that. And I'm happy that within the trenches, we're bringing guests that have and can share their ideas and feelings about that as well. We've had Eric Weinstein on as well. We've had, and again, all musicians are intertwined with it. So if I can get, you know, a comedian, and then some musicians and intellectual and some musicians, it all I think that's where I can sort of establish my sort of little niche in this sort of podcast world. And it's obviously it's a it's a whole different world for me, and I'm every single episode, I feel I'm becoming a better listener. And hopefully a better conversationalist. No, I yeah, it's it's a learning process. There's no doubt about it. But I'm really thankful and happy that everyone that has come on, the show has always left the show saying, Hey, that was a good time. It was really inspiring. And, you know, my biggest challenge is never the guest. My biggest challenge for the podcast is always the person's WiFi. What is it?

Chuck Shute: 54:51

Well, so yeah, cuz that's interesting. You talk about, you know, inspiring and all that and you did a TED talk. I was interesting that you talk about practice, persistence, and Patience. And you talked about how you had doors slammed in your face, but you kept going up people only see the success. So what were their gigs that you tried out for that? People said, No, thanks. Oh, yeah,

Ryan Roxie: 55:12

I have plenty of those, everyone has those stories, but that that persistence is being able just to, to knock that down and, you know, keep, keep going. And making, even if it's the wrong choice that you make, musically, it's still going to help you in one way or another, that experience should help you in another sort of setting down the road. So you can't think of things as be always been, oh my god, I, I fucked up, I did this. No, you fucked up for a reason. Because that way, you're fucking up right now. Whatever bad decision you're gonna make, is going to hopefully give you the enlightenment and the experience of not doing that, when you get the next opportunity to to heighten your own career, or whatever, whatever it is you're doing. So I do have these three P's, the practice and the persistence and the patience. But I also have in those things you should definitely attract. And you should definitely attain those things, the things that you might want to stay away from, what were they criticizing? comparing and copying? Those are the three C's that you don't want. Alright? So you have three P's that you want and the three C's. It's hard as hell to avoid those sometimes because we're humans, right? Yeah, we always come we live in this comparative society. You're always looking over your shoulder What's up? Grass Is Greener, right. But I'm telling you, if you if you do your your best not to compare You're much happier person.

Chuck Shute: 56:57

How do you do that, though? Because I can't stop comparing myself with I'm looking at other podcast, I'm looking at your podcast when he got Jordan

Ryan Roxie: 57:04

Peterson podcast and be inspired. Don't be jealous about because, you know, and it's a hard fucking thing to do. Yeah. I feel you'd brother I mean, but the minute you start comparing, it's going it's unfair, not just to yourself, but to the person you're comparing yourself to, because you have no idea what their journey what their struggle, how many times their doors been slammed in their face, that's true them to where they are. So and the criticizing thing that's just, you know, I have no problem when comedians and and we're joking around and we're we're stirring the pot, you know, with with having a having a laugh, and whatever you want to call it. With fun of criticizing someone, but you know what, it is still putting a little bit of negative out there if you can avoid it. And when you really mean it, you can still take a step back, you know, what, why am I criticizing? Is it? Is it because of myself? Or is it really because they're an asshole, and maybe they are an asshole, but you know what? You criticizing them being an asshole is not going to make them not be, they're still gonna continue to do what they do. So it doesn't really help you're like,

Chuck Shute: 58:20

Yeah, well, you know, what I found that that helps me with the comparing is like is actually, you know, you'd see this other podcast and you'd be like, Well, how do you get that guest and you kind of get angry. But then it's like, if you just talk to that podcaster and you say, hey, that's great that you got that guest and you reach out. And then you've kind of become like friends with these people. And then it's like, you're kind of rooting for each other. And then you help each other out like, Oh, you got Roxy, like Rob lane, you know, helped me get you on my podcast. Like I saw it. He had you on that? He's great.

Ryan Roxie: 58:48

Yeah. Isn't he amazing is a great straight to video. I love his

Chuck Shute: 58:52

podcast. And it's he's were so supportive of each other. And I love it. And it's like, it's great, that kind of stuff. So I'm assuming you do the same with other musicians, like you're all supporting each other. And I've got, I've got to tell you that doing this podcast has made me really

Ryan Roxie: 59:10

try to be a better guitar, a fellow guitarist, because guitar players don't have the best reputation for being this chummy sort of bunch, when there is a lot of credit, critical illness and critical thinking and critical viewpoints being shot, you know, back and forth, I think, or at least from my experience.

Chuck Shute: 59:33

Interesting.

Ryan Roxie: 59:35

Whereas whereas drummers always really most drummers and I'm being very stereotypical right now with guitar players and drummers, but most drummers seem to be very supportive of each other. They fucking have drum lunches. They have drum meetings, they have drum circles and all these you know all these groups. guitar players don't really have that so much, but With in the trenches in my podcast, I've really felt this kinship with more fellow guitar players and guitars that that I might have felt threatened by before, or been in, or you know, or had any sort of issue with, that goes away when you start talking about, you know, when you talk with them straight and you find out their experience and their journey and their sort of their headspace. You go shit. We are so much more alike, right or different.

Chuck Shute: 1:00:36

Yeah, no,

Ryan Roxie: 1:00:38

the podcast really has helped me. And I think we're building a cool not just guitar community, but a musician, community, and hopefully awesome. If I can actually see it through and see the end game to this. We're creating something that's with the podcasts that did a lot of people can relate to, because music is that common denominator. And it doesn't matter whether you're a comedian or whether you're, you know, a political guy, or whether you're a religious guy, or whether you're an intellectual. You all have we all have music in common. And we all have some sort of love for music. There's very few people that come on the podcast say, No, I don't like music. Even the ones that do for instance, Stan hope, you know Doug Stanhope said, Yeah, I'm not really into music. So I I'll do the podcast, but I'm not sure you know, you'll get what you want, huh, he ended up knowing more about music. And being more of a fan of like, he knew more about the Alice Cooper from the insight album than I did. So I thought that was really interesting, because that's his favorite Alice record.

Chuck Shute: 1:01:46

Okay. And then so you also speaking of music and learning music you have Tell me about the system 12 guitar method program that

Ryan Roxie: 1:01:56

you have. Well, that is actually very cool that you bring that up, because I hope we almost didn't talk about it.

Chuck Shute: 1:02:02

Of course, I'm gonna bring it up. Yeah.

Ryan Roxie: 1:02:05

Okay, well, that's perfect, because that's where I've laid a lot of my effort during the pandemic. I saw it was going to come out anyway. Okay, but obviously, when the pandemic kit, it had to come out in a quicker fashion, because I saw that there was a void of, of guitar lessons being offered online, that sort of covered the foundation of what I felt, you know, needed to be taught. I've taken like, basically, all the years of me playing guitar, I started when I was like, what, seriously, I started had a guitar in my hand when I was five. But you know, I didn't play I play like shit. But saying, you know, 1010, I started knowing that that's what I wanted to do. Yeah, I'm 55. Now. So what is that 45 years of guitar experience, all little short hat, all the little life hacks all the little guitar hacks, if you will, of learning the instrument I've put into this course, which is 12 lessons is called the system 12. And you can basically get a foundation of learning the guitar, even if you've already, you know, experimented with the guitar, and you know, a couple first things, this is going to give you a complete sort of foundation that you can build upon in a relatively short amount of time, the course is designed to if you really take it seriously, finish it in 12 weeks, right? Three months, you become a you become a Wait is that four Yeah, three, three months, you become a a proper guitar player, okay, like you're learning 12 songs, you learn to 12 riffs, you know, all your notes. By the way, there's 12 notes total, and music, just so you know. And there's actually 12 frets on a guitar until the guitar repeats itself. So there's a lot of things about system 12 that are interesting, the number 12. And I think we do a really good job of teaching it and the platform that it's on, it combines notation, and tablature. And those words are weird to you, and you're afraid of them. You don't have to be afraid because they scroll along with the video. So that whether at the end of the day, you can just look at me and I'm teaching you or you can look at the tablature and look at the notation or you can look at this thing called a virtual fretboard. And that'll show you almost like a video game. where to put your fingers. So there's so many different ways for people to learn how to play guitar, and to get that foundation under their belts. And I think we did a really good job the whole team that we put together over system 12 has stepped up and yeah, if anybody's interested in it, I'll put that in the notes. put the link in the Roxy calm Okay, the link and that's because that's my whole thing is I would love to have more people play guitar pass that torture of rock and roll on to the next generation or to the next person. It doesn't have to be someone that's younger if you're older, and you're thinking about, you know, and I really wanted to learn guitar, but I never took the time. Well, guess what you got the time you probably somewhere right now, or if you've had the time, and you can make the time because this only, you know, it really doesn't take that long, 12 lessons. And if you take it really seriously 12 weeks, if you want to extend it a little bit, that's fine, too. So, you know, with system 12, as well as the the podcast community, we're building something I think that can really help and inspire.

Chuck Shute: 1:05:38

That's really cool. So do you feel like at this point in your life you've achieved like all your dreams? And because it seems I would say you've made it? And do you feel like you're happier now that you have all the success that you've completed? Or were you happier? Kind of like before you made it with that possibility of like, what what can happen? Or have you just been happy this whole time? Now, I've

Ryan Roxie: 1:06:00

really learned in the last, it's been a while now that I've actually really appreciated it. But I've learned how to appreciate the ride, you know, I say called enjoy the ride in the ride is that journey, because I I can hear what you're saying. Back in my 20s. You know, in early 30s, I hear myself I see myself always looking to the next what's right next not being content with where you're at. And I mean, Jesus, all you have to do is, is watch the last dance on Netflix to you know, to see that man, you better enjoy the ride, you better enjoy all the success that you have. Because you do not want at the end of this journey, looking back on it and going, I'm miserable. No, you want to enjoy while you're creating, and, and celebrate the small little victories. But keep the end goal in mind, always do something every single day that small that can get you towards that goal and be happy about it. But just know that that end goal is going to happen. And you asked me if I was happy with everything. I appreciate you saying that I've made it I in no way. think at this point that I've actually made it. I'm very happy of what I've been able to accomplish. But there's still so much more that I want to know what

Chuck Shute: 1:07:25

else you want to

Ryan Roxie: 1:07:25

do. I want to get as many people playing guitar as possible. And system 12 is just the beginning of that I want to get as many people inspired by the podcast by by guests what they say so that their viewpoints can inspire you in spire, the listener, I want to continue impossible to tour as long as possible, especially, you know, with such a iconic legend is Alice Cooper, as long as he's up for it. And he seems like he's up for it. You know, every time we talk, he's like, dude, I can hardly wait to get back. It's I need to get back out on the road. And I feel the same way. So we can do more tours there. And then what happens, you know, later, but continue to play music continue to to put out stuff and maybe you know, help this because if you know this, this younger person who's thinking, Oh my God, why? Why would I try to play music for a living? It's so competitive. It's so hard. Well, guess what? Everything in life that you do is going to be competitive Are you get if you look at it that way. Yeah, let's try it. What's

Chuck Shute: 1:08:41

that? What is Jim Carrey say is like, you can fail at doing something you hate. So you might as well fail at doing something that you love. Exactly. That's, that's great, you know, and I feel that, you know, every single day, there's

Ryan Roxie: 1:08:55

some guy or gal that looks at the guitar, they say, you know what, today is the day I want to try it. It doesn't matter again. You could they could be young, or they could be older. But if there's someone that's looking at that guitar and saying, You know what, I think today is the day I can try it. And I will make it and I want to make that easier for people to do and if I can inspire anyone else to pick up guitar and learn it and make a living out of it. Because of my story, then that's the easiest gig I think I've ever had and actually most meaningful as well.

Chuck Shute: 1:09:33

That's awesome. Well, I do like to end each episode with a charity. Is there one that you want to promote here at the end or one that you've worked with in the past?

Ryan Roxie: 1:09:42

Yeah, I do. I really feel that this charity has helped out and I worked with it. When I lived in Los Angeles in the very beginning days, and they've done so much work since then. And they've they've accomplished so much what they Do as they take musicians, actors, artists, creators, and they'll put them in a situation where they go to hospitals, and basically teach their craft to either terminal patients or people that are in there in the hospital for long term care, they'll they'll give them their craft and, and either entertain them with it, or they'll teach them how to do it. And basically provide such a great feeling of worth for the people that are kind of stuck in the hospitals, patients that are stuck in the hospitals. And that that charity that they've been doing for years and years is called the art of Elysium. And I believe it's the art of elysium.org. Check it, Jennifer, how runs it and I was with them. early early days, we would go to Los Angeles hospital on Sunset and Where the hell is it way down on Sunset? And we would basically just go in the ICU and anybody that want to hear a song, we would basically be walking around from recovery room to recovery room or long term room to long term room, you know, playing our, our hits and our our songs and you know, the International setlist, if you will, that's great highlights was that was I got to play Wonderwall by Oasis with a very impromptu jam by Joaquin Phoenix, came and sang the lyrics to it because Wow. You know, he was there

Chuck Shute: 1:11:53

entertaining he a good singer. I've never heard him saying, well, he

Unknown: 1:11:57

was he was singing.

Chuck Shute: 1:12:00

Joaquin Phoenix, he could do whatever he wanted. He impressed me. He's an amazing actor.

Ryan Roxie: 1:12:05

He was he was he's obviously an oasis fan. So I was playing a song. And he just he heard the song from another room. He was running and he started singing it and I'm like, Oh, well, this is even better.

Chuck Shute: 1:12:18

And you recognize them. You're like, holy shit. Like that's walking for hours. Are you like one of those people that you just kind of you kind of pretend like it's no big deal because like, I'm like the opposite. I'm such a fanboy. Like I

Ryan Roxie: 1:12:29

i fanboy out. Yeah. If you see me on the podcast every once in a while, you know, I was. There's definitely people like, you know, we had Jordan or Eric Weinstein on or, you know, or like, Steve Stevens came on the podcast. Yeah. And and, but, you know, even though I've used Steve as a friend as well, you know, I'm so influenced by his guitar playing. I think he's such an amazing player. He

Chuck Shute: 1:12:55

is amazing. He

Ryan Roxie: 1:12:56

the fanboy comes out of you at any time. I mean, I I remember Tommy Lee saying that one time, he said, if you're not a fanboy, then what the fuck are you in this business? Yeah, I agree business because I be I was a fan first. And now, you know, people are fans of me. And that's great. I mean, you always have to have someone that inspires you. It doesn't matter who I mean. I have Rick Nielsen on I was completely fanboy. Awesome. Here's the guy that basically influenced so many of the songs that I've been trying to sort of, you know, not copy but

Chuck Shute: 1:13:35

to pay homage over the years. Very cool trick. All right. Well, thank you, Ryan. It's been amazing. There's a lot of stuff I didn't get to so you'll have to come back another time in normal Dover

Ryan Roxie: 1:13:45

more to Okay, awesome. You're really easy to talk to chuck. Thank you. It's very, very pleasurable, and hopefully your audience will cross pollinate over to in the train. Yeah,

Chuck Shute: 1:13:57

check out some of your episodes. You got a lot of great a lot bigger names than that. I get some time. So it's amazing. Oh, hey, man. And some of us are the same

Ryan Roxie: 1:14:04

as the other one washes the other both hands, washed the feet. My friend weed says that and I repeated as many as often as I can, but like that there's anybody in your audience that's has that desire to has that intent to want to learn guitar? Oh, yeah. Check out the system. 12 and all that all these links and all this stuff is at Ryan roxy.com.

Chuck Shute: 1:14:26

I'll put that in the notes. Perfect. All right. Thanks, Ryan.

Ryan Roxie: 1:14:29

Chuck. Thanks, buddy.

Chuck Shute: 1:14:30

See you later. Bye.

Unknown: 1:14:31

Bye. Mmm. Like,

Chuck Shute: 1:14:33

I learned so much like Jesse James Dupree auditioning for slash a snake pit. That could have been interesting, fun conversation with Ryan Roxy. Make sure to check out his website for all the links to the things we discussed today, including his podcast, in the trenches with Ryan Roxy, his 12 step guitar method and his music and tour dates. You can check out my website as well. It's got links to all my other episodes, social media and articles featuring my podcast. And again, make sure to subscribe to the show so that you can keep up with future episodes. If you want to support the show your likes, comments and shares, all help with that, with the algorithms these tech companies have so many of you have already done that. And I appreciate that very much. I'm just a one guy show here and so I can only grow with your support. So for that, I thank you immensely. Have a great rest of your day. And remember to shoot for the moon.