Chuck Shute Podcast
In depth interviews with musicians, comedians, authors, actors, and more! Guests on the show include David Duchovny, Billy Bob Thornton, Mark Normand, Dee Snider, Ann Wilson, Tony Horton, Don Dokken, Jack Carr and many more.
Chuck Shute Podcast
Ryan Roxie Discusses his New Song, Podcasting, Alice Cooper & More!
Ryan Roxie discussed his move from Stockholm to Cape Town, highlighting the cultural and environmental differences. He addressed media sensationalism about South Africa's safety, emphasizing personal experiences. Ryan praised Alice Cooper's non-political approach to rock and roll, citing a 2018 Guardian interview. He shared insights on the music industry, including the challenges of promoting his solo work and the importance of hooks in songs. Ryan also mentioned his podcast, "In the Trenches," and its AI-driven special episode. He reflected on his career, including collaborations with Slash and Cheap Trick, and his admiration for comedians and their truth-telling roles.
00:00 - Intro
00:20 - Move From Stockholm to Cape Town
03:23 - Alice Cooper, News & Comedians
05:00 - Metal Sludge, Metal Edge & Hooks
08:45 - Catchy Music & Standing Out
13:10 - Alice Cooper Interruption
14:01 - New Roxie Song & Video & Roxie's Voice
16:25 - Robin Zander & Liam Gallagher
18:30 - Learning From Alice & Work Ethic
21:45 - GnR, Slash, Cheap Trick, Oasis & More
24:12 - Bands Opening the Door to the Next Band
26:42 - Jackie From Canada and Favorite Song
28:30 - Meeting Famous People & Comedians
31:01 - Traveling & Touring & Seeing New Cities
32:30 - Alice Cooper Sightings
33:25 - In the Trenches Podcast, A.I. Video & Podcasts
36:55 - Having Guests on a Song & Algorithm
39:35 - Jordan Peterson & Eric Weinstein
40:39 - Collaborating & Connections
41:35 - Doing Podcasts
42:42 - Loving Music, New Single & Solo Shows
45:05 - Outro
Ryan Roxie website:
Chuck Shute link tree:
Thanks for Listening & Shute for the Moon!
Down with the heavy stars, rock and rolling through the cool guitars shops got the questions, digging so sharp, peeling back layers, hitting the heart.
Chuck Shute:So where are you now? Are you? Because I thought it said in the notes that you moved to South Africa, which I found fascinating. Thank you.
Ryan Roxie:Well, it is fascinating. It's a it's a complete polar opposite from where I was living the previous 19 years. And people talk about polar opposites, but I literally went from the North Pole to the South Pole. And you know, going from Stockholm to Cape Town is a big change, changing the weather, changing the people, changing the language, but at the end of the day, I'm still lucky enough to be traveling around a good part of the year with Alice Cooper. And so I get to see the states, and I get to see Europe regardless. But
Chuck Shute:yeah, so I just because, I mean, you know how the media, I guess I'm part of the media, but you know how the media, they twist things, and they try to drama, dramatize things and things. So they're saying, like, South Africa is so dangerous, and also, you actually live there. So you can say, Is it is it dangerous? Are you scared for your life? Are you scared for your well being, or is it totally safe? And this is the media is just blowing things out of proportion. I
Ryan Roxie:think there's places in every town, in every city, in every part of the world that you would be afraid to be in at certain times of the day or night, there's just places that you know that can be dangerous. Can I be completely oblivious if I said, Oh, is South Africa dangerous? No, no, it's no. You just like Los Angeles, where I lived a good part of my life, like New York City, where I lived years as well, and even Stockholm, especially Stockholm these days, there's just places that you avoid and or just know are you're much more aware of being safe in so South Africa, for me, it's been nothing but an amazing experience. I do think media plays up everything, because it is does seem like a big talking point right now, whether it's Elon Musk having something to do with it, whether it's politics, you know, with my whole world, I realized that that especially Alice's audience and my audience subsequently, are built of everybody. You know, there's some there's some left wingers, there's some right wingers. I think both of us are, or I think most of us are somewhere in between and in the center, leaning one way or leaning the other. But like, I'm definitely aware of the fact that both my audience and Alice's audience comprise every sort of political spectrum and opinion, so I try not to bring that into into the conversation, because it just like you come to a rock show to escape all that stuff, and that's basically what we're out here doing right now. Yeah, yeah. Well, I
Chuck Shute:thought that was so fascinating. Alice is in a 2018 interview with a guardian. That quote that he said about he didn't like to mix politics and rock and roll, and he said he didn't look at Bono and sting and Bruce Springsteen as political. He looked at them as humanitarian. And then he said something about how, like we you shouldn't look up to rock stars for politics because we're dumber than than most people, something like that. Like, I just thought, I was like, he said, also, don't tell people what to vote for, because that's not rock and roll. You know, rock and roll is about freedom. And I was like, Oh, those are, like, great quotes,
Ryan Roxie:right? Allows, is the king of the quotes, dude. He's done enough interviews since the set, you know, late 60s, all the way to he's doing one probably right now in his hotel room, so he's a master class at interviews and sound bites. My feeling is like, it's kind of like that thing where they say, oh, comedians, oh, at the end of the day, you're just a comedian. And they don't listen to me, I'm just a comedian. But trust me, comedians have really good takes, and are a good finger of the pulse of what's really going on. And for better, for worse, I look up to comedians because they do tell it like it is. Oh, let me see, I want to make got to make sure that I approve you recording this, huh? Hopefully it recorded all that so far. Yeah, I
Chuck Shute:hope so, because I was all gold. Yeah, no, I agree. It's funny, because I've said this multiple times. I I feel like I learned more about the news and the world from comedians, and I laugh more at The Real News, like I watch the news now, and I just like, it's just like a it's like a circus. It's like comical. The stories that they headlines, that they do, they're just funny to me. Like, I mean. You look more like metal sludge is hilarious there. I think it's funny. But even the Real News, like CBS, ABC, like it's it's comical, but comedians will reveal things, and I'm like, wow, I never knew that. I think,
Ryan Roxie:I think metal sledge will give you a much more genuine take of what's actually happening in Tracy Gunn's life than what Newsmax would,
Chuck Shute:yeah, yeah, no, Stevie's great. I love him. I wait
Unknown:the secrets out. You know, who's behind metal sludge?
Chuck Shute:Yeah, that's been out for years.
Ryan Roxie:I know I'm not. I have, I knew that, but I'm just talking for my audience that's just tuning in now. Oh, it hasn't signed onto a computer since the last Rock City News paper edition came out.
Chuck Shute:Yeah, no. I mean, that's what I loved, metal edge. When metal edge, kind of, like, they kind of got into a more, like, the harder, like the corn and the slip knot and stuff, I kind of didn't buy it as much. And then I started going online, and I found metal sludge. And I was like, Oh, here's where I can find out about all like, you know, the bands that I'm interested I think I don't know if I read about dad's porno mag. I feel like I might have read about that in metal edge, though. Yeah,
Ryan Roxie:Jerry was always really supportive of us, and she was amazing. Metal edge back in the days, rip magazine was another one. Catherine Terman over at Rip was great. Circus magazine was actually kind to my band, even before that. So I'm talking about old school stuff and metal sludge was, has always been our sort of underground. They're the dark web of rock gossip. I guess it used to be the dark web.
Chuck Shute:Yeah, I just, I just like the the humor some people get really mad about, and sometimes it'll be an interview that
Unknown:I'm doing, what's that we were just talking about that before?
Chuck Shute:Somebody, you know, maybe rightfully so, but I'm saying, like, sometimes it's something where I'm in an interview and I don't, I think the interview goes fine, and then Blabbermouth will take a snippet of the interview and they'll put a headline, and then somebody will get mad, and it's like, but I think a lot of that stuff is fun. Like, I think rock, I think the rivalries, I think the shit talk, I think all that stuff is fun to me. Like, I love like, The Motley Crue Guns and Roses, you know, they had their beef, and then Motley Crue had a beef with Metallica. And, like, I just thought all that shit was so funny to me,
Ryan Roxie:in a way, I think because of the times that we had, those times, and I was lucky enough to live in those times, it you have to remember, it was before the cell phone. It was before everybody recorded everything. Yeah, there was always that sort of sludge. That's a good way of putting it. There was that sludginess of where was the truth. Now, with everybody recording it and having a video podcast of someone saying this or that, it's all referenced, and everybody has receipts back in metal sludge, there was kind of a murkiness going on where you could, kind of, like, you know, never let the truth get in the way of a good story, right?
Chuck Shute:Well, it's funny, because people will get mad even when I make a clip myself. And I'll, you know, like, a lot of times on Instagram, I can only get, you know, 60 seconds, so I'll show a clip, and then people will, they'll, they'll jump to some conclusion. And like, you clearly didn't watch the full episode, because you're getting an opinion and you haven't watched the full thing, and so I don't know it's it's hard to
Ryan Roxie:call in the business the hook. Right the hook? It's funny now that a lot of rock and rollers are looking for hooks in their posts and then their stories in their YouTube content, than just concentrating on what's really important, which is the hooks of the songs. And because the hooks of the songs is basically the only reason why I'm still have a job with Alice Cooper, is because his original great band, the Alice Cooper band, wrote the hookiest songs, and throughout the years, all the records that Alice has made, and, you know, hopefully a few of the records that I've been a part of, they have, they're chock full of hooks. And that's the reason why people keep coming to the shows, because they want to, they want to experience those songs, and what they, you know, meant to them the first time they saw them as well.
Chuck Shute:Yeah, I was just listening to some of your soul stuff today, and I was, I was telling adika, I was messing I was like, you know, I actually really like Ryan's soul stuff. It is good. Like, it's hooky, this new song better than you. It's catchy. And I like, I like catchy stuff. So I don't know. I mean, if that's what people like, I feel like they should enjoy that as well. But how do you stand out? Because I feel like, I think it only had, when I last checked on Spotify, it only had, like, 2000 downloads. I was like, what like, the songs? Like, way better than that. Like, how do you I mean,
Ryan Roxie:more eyeballs on it. And if there's someone out there watching this right now that can crack, help me crack that Spotify app. Algorithm. Because how do you do it? You know? Yeah, you ask for people to listen to it, obviously. But then if they listen to it for just like 10 seconds, which is like the normal attention span of the music listener now, then the algorithm thinks, oh, well, it's people don't like it's not as popular. So, so listen to the song. Give it a whole, you know, whole songs less than three minutes. You can take three minutes out of your life to listen to better than you the whole time through. If you ask people to put it on their playlist. I know that sort that sort of thing happens, but yeah, I mean, what I'm doing with this song, and you know, with the next songs that I'm going to be releasing are all, like grassroots indie based. This is like a people's sort of band, the Ryan Roxy stuff that I'm putting out. I'm relying on my Instagram, like sort of following crowd, the inner cores. I call it the RGA, the Roxy guitar army that are on my public channel, and even more of a condensed nucleus version the all accessors, which you know, is under 200 people. But you know what? Those 200 people can really, really make a difference, and that's what we're trying to do here. Look at one point it catches fire. I'm happy, but if it never does, I'm still happy with the way the song turned out. Because I because people seem to be really digging the video. They seem to be digging the catchiness of the, you know, right out of the gate, the sort of sing song about it. So, you know, I'll keep releasing them as long as people, you know, it keeps growing. But
Chuck Shute:do you think you have to have some sort of, like, some sort of crazy, like thing to get attention for people like, I mean, you said Alice Cooper. People love Alice Cooper because of the hooky songs, which I agree, there's great songs, but wasn't part of his shtick is that he chops his head off in the show and shit. There was the shock rock like that was a big reason about why he became so popular. Yeah.
Ryan Roxie:I mean, there are definitely things that you that you can do, that that can support the music, but at the end of the day, the good song has to have that longevity. There's plenty of other bands that have done the same thing that you're talking about, and in fact, to a much more, you know, intense level, but you can't name more than one or two of their songs, so you have to, like, go back to where you can name a whole catalog of music, and that's where it comes back to the songwriting. But, yeah, I get it. I mean, there's always it'll help if there's some sort of controversy going on. I mean, the thing that we did that was a little bit different, and we just put this out in in sort of cahoots with the song, was that we came up with an AI version of myself. And that AI version, you know, always say, what would your younger self ask your older self questions? We were able to actually do that with this AI interview,
Chuck Shute:and that was crazy. What company did you use to do that? Because my cousin in law was trying to get me to do that. And I was like, what?
Ryan Roxie:Yeah, that was me. And hold on one second, because I'm gonna have to just tell tell him real quick that I'll message him back. You know
Chuck Shute:is that Alice, is that my buddy Alice, told him to do my
Unknown:podcast, and I told him I be I was doing an interview, and Chuck
Chuck Shute:Shute the best podcast ever, that we gotta get the word out.
Unknown:Let me get let me just tell her I'm doing an interview right now, buddy dot, dot. Dot. Call you back after
Chuck Shute:he could join in if you
Ryan Roxie:so. Basically, I'm just a stepping stone to get to Alice Cooper. I get it. Oh,
Chuck Shute:what? No, I love you. I love dad's porno mag. I love all your solo stuff. I love this new song. I'm not being like a fucking like, kiss ass like, I actually like it. The video is cool. And you got all, like, the the Beavis and butt head and Brady Bunch, and all these Easter eggs or whatever that's
Ryan Roxie:that's Irwin Erwin Longway that did the video. He did he's done an incredible job. He does a lot of the artwork. He does artwork for my podcast, and he also does some artwork for my a lot of my guitar picks and stuff and and so he's really, really talented. And when we went to do shoot the video, or not shoot the video, I guess I did shoot the video, because it's just me on a green screen, but he put all that stuff in back. I think he ended up saying, like, two or 300 backgrounds that he used for it. So go check out the video again. Don't check out 10 seconds of it. Check out the whole two minutes and 49 seconds of it. That would help out. Yeah, it's
Chuck Shute:catchy. It gets in your head. Have you ever, has anyone ever told you that your voice sounds like Ed Roland from collective soul?
Ryan Roxie:No, but I love Ed rolling from collective. So I wish it would sound more like it, but what I got is similar. No, my old bass player in my band, electric angels. His name is Jonathan, Daniel, and now he's, he's like,
Chuck Shute:Yeah, we were talking about that, like, that's like, a superstar band. He's
Ryan Roxie:a, he's a mogul. Now manager,
Chuck Shute:yeah, he manages my friends, band, train. All
Ryan Roxie:right, cool. All right. Well, not not just train, but Green Day and Fall Out Boy and lordy and he's, he's, he's got a good, really good roster. Well, he always says, he goes, Man, you sound more and more like Donnie V every single
THEME SONG:Oh, yeah,
Ryan Roxie:I love those. Early enough is enough records. I love chips. Voice to chip and Donnie actually sound quite similar to each other. But, yeah, Donnie, Donnie V's voice is, is a great voice, but you know the ultimate for me, Robin Xander. He's my he's my ultimate favorite, like voice and the voice, the two voices I think I tried to copy in, you know, tried to emulate over the years, Robin Zander and Liam Gallagher, because I just like Oasis voice. You know that I love that band as well. But, you know, I don't know how close I got to either of them, but hopefully there's a little bit of originality in that voice. But you know, have you
Chuck Shute:ever met either of them? Um, I
Ryan Roxie:Robin Xander sang on my on my solo album called Imagine your reality, that I put out just a couple years ago, and he, we actually did a cover of California man, and that was track three on heaven tonight. And I made it track three of, imagine your reality. So he ended up doing a do sort of a duet with me. And Robin has been, you know, and everybody in cheap trick, basically all the guys in cheap trick, you know, Rick Nielsen, huge, huge hero of mine, Tom Peterson, you know, wanted to be that guy growing up as well. Buddy Carlos is great, but now they have DAX Nielsen too, who's just as great. And I love DAX, but that band get along with very well. And on the flip side of the coin, I don't know if I ever do want to meet Liam Gallagher, because, you know, it might be one of those situations where you go be careful. You know, if you meet the people you really look up to, they might. I do think he's funny as fuck, though. I think he's like, he comes up with, like, great, like, honest answers and like, he's he's earned the degree and not giving a fuck, and he can do it in, in all his interviews and stuff like that. And I just hope he's able to prove it and walk the walk when they reform and do their, uh, their stadium too. I just hope it's not one of those things where it's like, you know, one and done. I really want to see them like, succeed.
Chuck Shute:Yeah. I don't know if they're coming to feed. I should go catch that show, because it might be the only chance you get right. It might be like you said, I'm done,
Ryan Roxie:yeah? I mean, I've read something where they're not getting paid for the shows until after the show is done, like, like, they'll get like, just to make sure that they don't break up before going on stage. You know, that's fine, which is completely the opposite of what like the Alice Cooper organization is, because I don't think we've ever gone on late, not for personal reasons. There's something's wrong with the stage, maybe, but no one's ever, you know, said nah, nah, give me five minutes, because I'm just not feeling it. No, Alice is like, if you're five minutes early, you're five minutes late, we're always on time, and he does not cancel shows. I mean, the guys out there touring now with with you know, he had a bout of shingles, man. I mean painful, painful thing, and he's out there just giving it his all. You know, it's not any secret. He said it in interviews and stuff, and he said it, but, but, you know, he really, really is a consummate professional. And I, luckily enough, I've been able to learn a lot from him.
Chuck Shute:Yeah, I think you talked about that practice, persistence and patience. Yeah. I mean, I feel like I do all those things, and I I still am too forgettable. So I just, I want to, like, how does Alice? You think it was the shock rock that that catapulted him to the top?
Ryan Roxie:I think with Alice, it was at the end of the day. I really do think it was the songs, because those songs still are iconic, long lasting. You still get the same energy out of out of them when you listen to them on on classic rock radio. I think it was him in the whole band. Just nose to the What's that nose to the grind, or grind to the nose, or whatever it is. You just. Yeah, no, just grindstone. No. You just don't know any other lifestyle. He doesn't know a different lifestyle, other than being on tour and then a small break recording and then getting back out on the road. Because even in today, I mean, he's 77 years old, and he's still when he's not on the road, he's in the studio, or he's doing a, you know, doing some sort of new show and new podcast, or something like that. So again, really inspiring for us, not just to be on stage with him, because, you know, we're competing with the getting our energy levels up to someone that's seven in their 70s that can outmatch any singer and or at least go toe to toe with any singer in their 20s and 30s. It's pretty cool to be on stage and have to get up to that level of energy, and then you see the things he does offstage and the work ethic that he has, it inspires us, and it inspires well, you can see it inspires everybody in the band, because Chuck's got his own band with a lot of albums out with beast of Blanco. Nita has got a great career going with her own solo career. Tommy's got Crossbone Scully, which he's really been putting a lot of work and done great stuff with. Glenn's been playing drums with I think he's got a track on the new Billy Idol album. I've got my new single out and recording a bunch of new songs that are going to be released, plus doing my podcast and enjoying just talking like the way we're doing right now to a bunch of other artists as well. So yeah, I think the routine of keeping it going is what really has given Alice that legacy status.
Chuck Shute:Yeah, so, I mean, you said 77 I mean, he can't go on forever. At some point he's going to have to stop. What is your plan? Have you looked that far into the future? Would you just then continue to focus on your solo stuff? Or would you join another band, like, would you join Guns and Roses if they had an opening.
Ryan Roxie:I think that ship has sailed, to be honest with you, friend, I did that years ago. It was, it was, you know, when they were putting together a higher Guns and Roses and, you know, I had always said when I played with slash, I now, I think I've not been in a band, legitimately been in a band with two of the members, slash and Gilby, in separate bands, and done some touring with Steven Adler as well. So I feel like I've, you know, I've definitely contributed to that legacy, or I've been a part of that legacy, for, you know, with just my experience of knowing the guys, I thought that the album that I made with slash the ain't life, grand album that had rod Jackson singing on it, who killed it? You know, every musician on that album killed it. Johnny Grae was amazing on bass and Teddy zigzag on the keyboards. And, of course, you had, you had Matt log, who now drums in ACDC as the drummer in that band. It's an album really worth checking out. So that was cool. As far as joining a band post Alice, you'd have to just say, Okay, what band is it? Do we all align? You know, would I like, you know, jump in on a cheap trick show here? You know, in a second, in a second, of course, but they've got their kids all in the bands now, you know, they, I know that Robin's a son who's really talented as well, is playing in the band. You know, if Oasis needed a second guitar player, third guitar player, fuck yeah, come on. How are we going to do it? Because you want to play with the bands that you grew up idolizing. But at the same time, there's, there's more opportunities to put our own stuff together, and who knows what other musicians are out. There's a lot of talented people that I've been able to meet through Alice Cooper that possible connections and musical projects could be formed. For sure. Yeah,
Chuck Shute:do you ever think you ever wonder, what if you didn't get the Alice Cooper gig, like, where would you be? I mean, because you did, like you said, you're working with slash and, I mean, you have all these other things that you're doing. Every every
Ryan Roxie:band I've always been in has opened the door to the next band. And I do tell people that that are in bands, young bands that are currently playing, I say, look, remain friends with the guys and girls that you're in the band with, because that'll eventually lead you to your next gig. And that's exactly what happened with with Alice. I got the call from Alice because I was playing with Gilby and Gilby Clark, and he basically Alice wanted to maybe audition. In myself and Gilby. Gilby couldn't do it because of his own solo stuff going on at the time, and but the door was open for me. And Gilby said, Go get that gig. And from there, the slash door opened, and then even producing my own first dad's porno mag. You mentioned dad's porno mag, the producer of that record, one of the producers, Mark Shulman, who's a great drummer in his own right, he he turned me on to the tal Bachman record, which got me into that avenue of of music. And that, ironically, is the biggest track I think I've played on in my career that nobody knows I'm playing on, unless you're in my inner circle. But she's so high, yeah, he's so high. That's all my guitar. And you know, the experience of being able to make an album with Bob Rock was was incredible. And then, you know, just the producers of the songs that I've been able to work with over the years is pretty freaking cool. I mean, the first producer I worked with was Tony Visconti, who did all the T Rex stuff, and that was electric angels. And then we moved on with Bob Rock, and then guys like, who else? Jim Mitchell, who engineered Guns and Roses, Jack Douglas, who did my the first two Cheap Trick records. We worked on the slash album together Bob Ezrin, we've worked with on the newest Alice Cooper record as well. So been able to work with a lot of talented people, and not just musicians, but producers as well.
Chuck Shute:Yeah, I know you got to get out of here. Can we give a shout out to one of your biggest fans, Jackie. Do you remember? You know her? Jackie from Canada. Jackie Cole I don't know where she's from. I think she's from Canada. Is she okay? She always posts about you. She's like your biggest fan. She has questions. She wanted to know what your favorite song was that you ever wrote,
Ryan Roxie:the favorite song that I ever wrote. Man, we're just as songwriters. We're pretty protective that we all think. We all think a lot of our songs are our hits, and we have this one, this one's all going to the top. But I would say one of my favorites that I've written is this newest one, because it's out now and it's getting a lot of attention amongst my group of people, like, Oh, I didn't expect this, this song with what I knew you from with Alice, you know, I expected, I expected a certain song, if you, if you're the guitarist in Alice Cooper, but I didn't expect this indie rock vibe to it. So I like surprising people like that. As far as other songs that I think could be one of those lighter in the air songs, there's a song called Second Chances off of the Roxy 77 peace love and Armageddon album that I'm really happy with it's a ballad, and it's produced well, and I don't know it's a tough question, Jackie, to be honest with you, because, let's be honest, we're all pretty protective, and we don't like to think we write shit and put it out there. We like to think everything we write is pretty damn good, and that's why we put it out there. But, you know, I'm sure there's some clunkers in there, but I'm pretty happy with everything.
Chuck Shute:Yeah. Oh, she had another question too. I thought was interesting. Who is someone famous that you that you want to meet? I know you, you said you maybe don't want to meet Liam Gallagher, but is there someone? I mean, you probably could meet almost anyone famous you want through Alice. That's a good connection.
Ryan Roxie:Yeah. I mean, I've been talking about Bucket List of meeting so many of your heroes and not being disappointed. And, like I said, Fuck it, I would say Liam Gallagher again. I don't want to meet him, but I do want to meet him, because I think we could have, you know, we could have a beer and we could talk, we could definitely talk Beatles, you know, it just like I said, it'd be one of those things that if he was on a bender or wasn't feeling the vibe, or I was too Yank for him, then, you know, then I'd be out. But I don't know, I like, I think comedians are kind of like the if I'm going to fanboy out, I'm going to fan boy out with with more like comedians and stuff like that. Like I lucky enough to have one of my favorite comedians of all time, Doug Stanhope, on my podcast. And even though we never met in person, we had like, a three and a half hour podcast where I felt like, Damn, that was cool to meet him. So there's, you know, Daniel Tosh, another comedian that I would love to meet. You know, he might hate me, maybe not. But you know, and Bill Burr, he's one of those guys that like he he comes. From my wheelhouse of rock, he really does. But would he like me? I don't know but, but I know he's a drummer and so, yeah, I guess Steven
Chuck Shute:Adler. So would I want to he what? I think I saw that bill burr follows Stephen Adler. I just thought that was interesting.
Ryan Roxie:Yeah, jams. He jams drums with with a lot of people, yeah. So I think he's, you know, like I said, it's maybe not so much musicians that are on my bucket list to meet. It's more like comedians, because, like, again, they are the truth, they're the truth Sayers in today's world, you know, you can hide behind some comedian. But again, going back to your point about musicians, I don't think we're all stupid and drunk and idiots. There's definitely a share of them out there that are, but, you know, they're having a good time. More power to them. But think about it, we are the ones that get to go on tour and see the world for what it really is. Choose to step outside the tour bus bubble that we can put ourselves in. Sometimes we can see every single city to what it truly is, and I guarantee you, it's a lot better than what you know the media says, yeah. Do you
Chuck Shute:do that when you go on tour? Do you travel? Would you go just like walk into a local bar and just talk to people? Because I love doing that. But I mean, I'm not, I'm not like in an Alice Cooper band. So, you know, it's different.
Ryan Roxie:I like the fantasy of saying that I do that, and I do it occasionally, but then again, it's very easy and in sewer to stay in that tour bus level, but that like, oh, like, I'm, oh, I'm gonna go out and see the city. Well, what does that mean? Well, that means I'm gonna go to with Alice to play some golf in the morning at the local, amazing country club, and then come back to the hotel and use the hotel gym, then go to the, you know, go to the venue and have, like, nice catering, and then play in front of people that really are digging the music. So yeah, it's one thing to actually say, Yeah, I'm gonna really see what this city's about. And then the other thing is to like, well, this is pretty nice, too, living this lifestyle. But I will be honest with you, I have walked around, and I do it more in Europe than I do it in the States. And I'm sorry to say, but I do walk around with my headphones on and check out the city and just see a lot of stuff. Yeah,
Chuck Shute:I think it's crazy, because I'm in Phoenix, and, like a lot of people, see Alice Cooper, just how I saw him at the mall one time, and my girlfriend didn't believe me. I was like, That's Alice. And she goes, No, it's not. And I said, Alice, and he turned around, and I just then I froze, and I was like, Rock on, like, he's just shopping with his kids, just at the mall, just out and
Ryan Roxie:about. You don't want to meet Alice Cooper backstage, because, you know, he'll either be throwing knives or he'll be like, you know, getting into character watching kung fu movies. You want to meet Al is that a hot topic?
Chuck Shute:Yeah, and you could, he's out, and my, my girlfriend's dad saw him at like, a storage locker, and he was making conversation like, he's very, just like a man of the people. It's very cool, but, but he's also
Ryan Roxie:a man. He's easily he's like a man of 1000 different disguises too. So he has some good disguises. It's hard to disguise being Niles Cooper, but when he wants to, he can be Lon Chaney, if you will.
Chuck Shute:Yeah, no, I definitely recognize him, though, but that's very cool. Well, oh yeah. So you have the new single out. You mentioned your podcast, but I don't, you haven't. Seems like you haven't done an episode in a while. Is that still active?
Ryan Roxie:Or the actual AI video is our latest? Yeah, I watched that. It's our latest special episode of in the trenches podcast we just had on. I mean, since I moved down to South Africa, it took a little while to set the studio up and get everything running. But Vic, our producer and Vic Chalfont, gets a big shout out for putting together that whole AI video with the avatar and everything.
Chuck Shute:So cost money. Like, is that a company you hired? Or how does that work? No, it's Vic shop
Ryan Roxie:on our producer, and we, we actually, I did the research of finding out, like, who else has interviewed them, AI self, and there was this guy from Norway that did it the best. And I wish I had his name right now so I can give him a shout out. Maybe we can get it in the credits or something, but, but he was instrumental in, like, in helping Vic with the right companies, the right a.ai websites to use. I went to 11 labs. I believe it was they do the best voice impersonations. Like, honestly, AI came up with all the questions, and it really sounds like me asking the questions to myself. And yeah, it
Chuck Shute:was crazy. And then you add, like, different versions of yourself, different era different
Ryan Roxie:different eras of myself. So I you know Vic Chalfont, same producer that does. The in the trenches podcast, you know, since I've been to South Africa, I'd say the podcast itself slowed down, only because we're getting the studio together, but we're ramping it back up again. It always kind of goes with like, where, where am I going to be on tour? You know, if the tour schedule is able to fit in. That's why we were able to do so many episodes during the dark times. You know, I don't know when you started your your podcast, but did you started during COVID or?
Chuck Shute:No, I started it before, and then everybody fucking copied me and jumped on the bandwagon, and now I'm at the bottom of the pile again. Yeah. Well, guess what? COVID
Ryan Roxie:podcasts are, like herpes. Everybody has them so. But the thing is, you know, we were able to get a good schedule going. We had a good run. We were doing two or three a week, and we ended up getting over that 100. And, you know, 140 100. I think we're at almost 150 episodes now, and that's it. That's, that's how you know, you can last for a while when you've done it that many episodes, and I'm sure you've done a lot of them as well, but it's all about the consistency. And, yeah,
Chuck Shute:almost 500 here. So
Ryan Roxie:that's great. That's great. But, you know, look, then, then you go to Joe Rogan, and he's got, like, what, 10,000
Chuck Shute:Well, the thing I just saw something yesterday was, like the kids from sopranos, like the actors, they have a podcast to get, like, literally everybody and anybody who's a remote level of fame. If they start a podcast day one, they have more followers than me. So, you know, I ask these questions about, How do I stand out? I'm just trying to learn as a as somebody who wants to be,
Ryan Roxie:if I find any information on how to break that algorithm, and you find how many any information about to get into the Spotify loophole of getting into the most requested heat seeker, I think
Chuck Shute:one you, when we said controversy, is that is one thing, but I would say another. We you mentioned the guests when you had, I think having guests, who's the guy I had, him on my show, Billy Billy Morrison. I think he's the, yeah, he's good at that guitar player with Billy Idol. He had, like, Ozzy and Billy Idol, and all these guests on his album, and his songs are just taken off. He's, like, the number one song. And, I mean, I think that's really smart. Some people say, No, this is about this is about me and my music, and they're trying to stay true and all that. I understand that. But like, if you want to break into the algorithm, whatever, the more guests, the names you have, like, that's, I don't know it works,
Ryan Roxie:but take but involve the guests, not just because they're going to get you clicks. No,
Chuck Shute:no, of course, not song, he said, Billy Morrison. He goes this song, it's, it's for Ozzy, because I'm not bigger than the song. He the way you should watch him, interview with him. It was a great interview. That guy's really cool. I like him. He's
Ryan Roxie:and he knows how to network. We were actually supposed to connect. The last time I was in LA, they had a show together that we're going to do the first cars album in its entirety. And I'm a big fan of the band. The cars amazing album came out in 77 produced by Roy Thomas Baker, just like, really cool. Every song is, you know, great. Elliot Easton, the guitar player from that band, one of the best solo guitar parts guys that's out there. He always plays the right part for the song, that lifts it and solos tell a story within the song. Fucking great. So we were supposed to do, I was gonna do, was it Bye, Bye, love, and don't just stop it. Was a couple songs I was going to go play with him, and now and then, then all those la fires happen, and they're like, Nah, we're going to delay it so, you know, didn't happen. But you know, Tommy's Tommy's tight with him. And, like I said, great networker. So good, good for him. Maybe, maybe I can ride the coattails of the Billy Morrison singles and get my better than you out there to more eyeballs. Well,
Chuck Shute:it has my validation. It has my endorsement for whatever that's worth. Like I enjoyed it. I enjoy your soul music, shoot endorsement. I like that. It's not worth anything. But I mean, you know something, maybe, yeah,
Ryan Roxie:down. You keep doing your episodes, you keep representing metal sludge and carrying the torch. It's perfect, yeah.
Chuck Shute:And I love the comedians too. I love your podcast. And you know, Jordan Peterson, like, that's a bucket list guest for me. That was amazing. That's that
Ryan Roxie:was cool. That was turned out that Jordan is a fan of Alice. He was just very intrigued by Alice. So that's how we were able to get him onto the show. I said, Because he because, because I, you know, like, again, having an intellectual like that onto the podcast, it's not as what are you going to talk about? Well, our angle was he. Really loved. Welcome to my nightmare, the album as a concept. So I'm like, Well, shit, I've played pretty much every song off that album, you know, 1000s of times. So why not, you know? And then we we talked about and then we got to talking about a bunch of other stuff. So yeah, him and and Eric Weinstein is another intellectual that we had on the podcast that was very, very cool to interview. I don't know if you know Eric,
Chuck Shute:but Oh yeah, yeah. I mean, I love all I would love our
Ryan Roxie:guy, guitarist himself, and just, yeah, very, very inspiring to have these guys. But maybe that's my sort of angle, and your angle is that we are collaborating, maybe not on songs, but I'm collaborating with people just by knowing them. You know, I just had a conversation with this morning, with Michael de bar from little Stevens underground ground garage. And I love his show. I love to listen to it and Alice and I listen to it pretty much every morning when we're on our way to golf. And he played, he played like this, the Segway, he played the Hollies and the and the replacements back to back. And I was like, that's so cool. So I actually messaged him. I said, Man, Alice and I are freaking great songs. And he literally messaged me right back within two minutes and said, Oh, I'm so glad tell Alice, you know, thank you for carrying the torch, and thank you for, you know, continuing to make music. And I'm like, Yeah, well, thank you for playing it,
Chuck Shute:yeah, exactly, I mean, just Yeah, exactly, carrying the torch and keeping it alive and talking about it, and, you know, endorsing it and sharing as much as I can with my small little followers, like I try to do my part.
Ryan Roxie:Well, you know what? Let's instead of calling it small, by the time people watch this, what have you? What if it got on that thing where the chuck shoot podcast just became, you just leapfrogged over everyone that started their podcast in the dark times, because you were there before. You're a pioneer,
Chuck Shute:yeah, they kind of leapfrogged me some section. A lot of people quit after have you, I don't know if you noticed that, like about 2023, people are like, I'm done with this podcasting bullshit. No, if
Ryan Roxie:you get past, like I said, if you get past 100 episodes, you can say that you haven't until you get to that level, because it's, it's not easy, man, most, I think most harder. Most people do about maybe 30 episodes, and then it's kind of like getting gets kind of weak, weak, weak, weak. I mean, I'm glad, I'm glad we got over the Centurion mark, and then then our production kind of slowed down a little bit, but you know what, we can ramp it back up. I enjoy talking to people. I enjoy doing stuff like this as well. And, you know, hopefully I haven't ruffled too many feathers today. So
Chuck Shute:well, yeah, me, me too. I don't want to ruffle any feathers. Give my love to Alice and the band. I love everybody. I don't hate anybody. I don't want to ruffle feathers. I just, I love rock, and I think it's fun, and I love music. I love your new song. I love the video. It's all great. Well, let's do any solo shows, like, I'd come see you if you come to Phoenix?
Ryan Roxie:Yeah. I mean, living in South Africa, it's not easy just to skip on over to Phoenix, but it
Chuck Shute:happened to be if, like, there was a, you know, you know, Alice lives here, so you could visit him and then do a show, yeah?
Ryan Roxie:In between, yeah, absolutely. And I have no problem. I have putting I've put bands together, a European lineup, a UK lineup. I've even had a grease lineup and an American lineup for the solo stuff before. So we've done tours in the past. It's just that, you know, fingers crossed and knock on wood and all that kind of stuff. Alice's tour schedule has been jam packed these last few years and continues to, at least when I look at the Tour days, it remains to be that way. So, you know, we want to ride it out into the sunset. So let's keep on playing as many Alice Cooper shows as possible. And he's my number one priority. He's my guy, and I'm going to learn as much as I can from him before he decides to, you know, rock on into the sunset or whatever he wants to do when he makes his decision, like I'll do, I'll make our decisions. Then everybody in the band will make their decisions about what they're going to do, and hopefully, we will have built enough of the fan base of the Alice Cooper that they'll follow us with whatever new stuff that we end up doing after that. But you know what? I don't want to talk about the future, and I love talking about the past because it's fun. But right now, I'm focused on the present, which is the new single you know better than you check it out on whatever streaming platform you want, or just go to YouTube, or just go to ryanroxy.com I always tell ryanroxy.com is the easiest thing, and I have all my stuff there. I'll put it in
Chuck Shute:the show notes. People just click it. They don't have to type it in. They can just push it, click. It's right there.
Ryan Roxie:Click right on it. Just think about it. Think about it, and you'll be there. Awesome.
Chuck Shute:Well, thank you so much. I'll let you get off to your dinner. Her and all right for
Unknown:us tonight. Mr. Shute, nice talking to you, man. All right. You too,
Chuck Shute:see you later. Hey,
THEME SONG:every topic, one of a kind, from the rockets to the wise men, you
