S1: E7: Randy Jackson (Zebra) - Waiting For The Lines To Fall

Randy Jackson Master

Thu, 12/30 11:01AM • 1:55:03

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

play, zebra, guitar, song, record, band, new orleans, great, long island, beatles, string, remember, houston, called, music, big, gigs, live, randy, written, Randy Jackson, China Rain, Zebra The Band, Louisiana, Louisiana Music Hall of Fame, Backstage Pass Radio, Backstage Pass Radio Podcast, Randy Hulsey, Randy Hulsey Music, Randy Hulsey Podcast, Cypress Texas

SPEAKERS

Randy Jackson - Zebra, Randy Hulsey, Adam Gordon

Randy Hulsey  00:00

A very special Good evening. My guest is the vocalist, the songwriter, and the guitars for the power trio rock band that hails from New Orleans, Louisiana. I've seen this band probably somewhere around 15 times and that includes some old places like old man rivers and Avondale partners in St. Martin Ville and even at the summit in Houston, Texas. They were inducted into the Long Island and the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame and are hands down one of my all time favorite man's you guys don't go anywhere. You'll not want to miss my chat with the one and only Randy Jackson of zebra when we return.

Adam Gordon  00:36

This is backstage pass radio, the podcast that's designed for the music junkie with a thirst for musical knowledge. Hi, this is Adam Gordon. And I want to thank you all for joining us today. Make sure you like subscribe and turn alerts on for this and all upcoming podcasts. And now here's your host of backstage pass radio, Randy Halsey.

Randy Hulsey  01:06

Randy Jackson, welcome to the show. How are you?

Randy Jackson - Zebra  01:08

I'm doing okay, Randy, how are you?

Randy Hulsey  01:10

I'm doing great. It's a treat to have you on for sure. And thanks so much for taking the time. It's greatly appreciated. No problem. So I have to explain to the listeners that I guess it was probably 1983 I was, let's see, I'm doing the math. I was a, I guess a junior in high school. And I was coming back from a camp in Washington, Texas. And I was actually traveling from Houston to Lafayette with a buddy of mine named Scott Cody. And he at the time, you know, we're we're in this van and he has a cassette. He said, Man, you got to check this band out out of Louisiana. And he popped it in. And it was zebra his debut album, of course. So that was kind of my introduction. I and I think I'm horrible with dates. So I believe that it was sometime around late 8383 When I heard that for the first time. But zebra was founded back in 75. Correct?

Randy Jackson - Zebra  02:11

Right. 1975 started off in New Orleans, Louisiana. And we started doing some gigs down there. We had, you know, Guy and Felix and I were zebra. Before that. 1974 we we had a four piece band, we had a keyboard player with us. And we called that band maelstrom. And a keyboard player wanted to strictly do progressive music. And we did do a lot of it. You know, we we did we were doing Pink Floyd and some Yes. And, you know, whatever was progressive at the time, and we love that music, but we we needed to get gigs. And the kid wanted to dance. Right. And so the keyboard player, his name is Tim Thorson the he decided he just didn't, he didn't want to do it. So he wasn't gonna play the dance music. He wasn't into it. So, so then we you know, he left the band and then we reformed as a three piece.

Randy Hulsey  03:01

So define dance music. I don't ever see zebra doing dance music, but I'm assuming covers of dance stuff, right? I'm talking

Randy Jackson - Zebra  03:10

Yeah, this wasn't like dance, like disco dance. Okay, this is remember, this is like 1975 and disco was out. But we didn't have to do that. But we needed a place that people could dance to and it wasn't, you know, close to the edge. Sure. That so, you know, like, taking care of business. You know, BTO dance song. David Bowie Suffragette City, you could dance to that? Yes. You know, so it was though it was rock songs but danceable rock song. Exactly. And therefore we were adding to the fact Yeah, so are you still in contact with Tim today? Where's he yet? today? Yeah, he's, he lives in Alabama. He's up in Birmingham. And he's a vice president of a bank. Well, he made the right move.

Randy Hulsey  03:57

There you go. There you go. He has his own types of stress to deal with, I'm sure. Yeah. And then in the financial industry, you know, I'm in. I do, it sells at a consulting firm here in Houston for a living. So I deal a lot with the financial institution. That's what pays the bills for me. And then, you know, as a solo artist, I go out and make a little bit of bread on the side to dump back into new guitars. And, you know, that keeps the wheels rolling. We talked about kind of where zebra came up in 75. Where did the name zebra come from? And who came up with that name for you guys? Was it a collaborative effort?

Randy Jackson - Zebra  04:36

Well, I would, you know, overall, yeah, it was a collaborative effort because we were kind of pushed into getting a name. What happened was, we were still we were rehearsing, we weren't quite ready to start booking gigs. And I got a call from a friend of mine from high school. I was just out of high school and a little sister had booked a band for a formal that her sorority was having. And because we're live fraternities and sororities in New Orleans in high school, the band had canceled at the last minute. And they were frantic to get somebody because they had paid for the hall. Everybody already had their tuxes in the whole nine yards. And they knew that, you know, I had a band and we were practicing to show those there any way you can play you, can we, you know, we hadn't done a gig yet. And so I went to Phillips and guy and asked them and they said, you know, what, we're ready. You know, we were we were close to being having enough songs to do it. And so we had to have a meeting, we didn't want to just go up and tell people where the who did it ran sudo right. So we, we met at a place in Uptown New Orleans, near the Tulane campus was a little bar called the booth. And we sat down, everybody brought a list of names with them. And, you know, we drank several pitchers of beer, arguing over what the name should be. And, you know, we really couldn't come to a conclusion or come to a decision. But there was a picture of a zebra, we're sitting right up above where we were, and it was a deck of podge of a boat magazine cover from 1926. And it had a woman dressed in 1920s kind of garb, you know, riding a zebra. And, you know, when we were leaving, as we got up from the table, one of us said, why don't we call zebra, you know, right there. And that was it.

Randy Hulsey  06:23

Because you were out a beer and something had to stick really quick.

Randy Jackson - Zebra  06:26

needed a name? Yeah. Well, you say, who knows? If we'd have been on the street, you know?

Randy Hulsey  06:35

Gonna pick a little bit of fun and say, you know, it was infant stages that you guys and somebody's asking you to play a gig you don't. You don't even really have a name figured out it was gonna ask if you're gonna play the same four songs 400 times enforce sets, like if there was if you were there at that time, or if you actually have enough material lined out to get through a couple of sets?

Randy Jackson - Zebra  06:56

Yeah, we didn't have we didn't have to repeat any phone. And there were a lot of jams that we could do. You know, so even if I forget what how the night went, you know, I think it went okay. You know, gig went fine. We did. I don't remember repeating anything, but if we did, it would have been in the last set. And we didn't we didn't repeat it. We would have just, you know, extended solos.

Randy Hulsey  07:17

Exactly. Improvise. Yep. So you and Felix are from New Orleans. Is that correct? And I think guy is a transplanted California. And is it am I correct there? Am I off base?

Randy Jackson - Zebra  07:29

That's right Guy. Guy is from California. And he went to New Orleans on a Mardi Gras. Actually, he had broken up with his girlfriend out west, and found out from a friend of his that she had gone to New Orleans. So he, he Traister down in New Orleans tracked her down. And then once he was there, he loved it. And he just decided to stay moved down there that they didn't stay together. But he he decided to just move there. And that's what he did. I met him. I met him shortly afterwards. Well, it

Randy Hulsey  08:01

sounds like better things prevailed for him for sure. What about Felix? How did the relationship where did that form? And where did you know Felix from? In the beginning?

Randy Jackson - Zebra  08:11

I think I was a senior in high school at the time. And I used to go down. I only had a half a year of school as a senior because I had enough credits to get out early. And I remember even during the first half of the I used to go down a couple of miles from my house to this little nightclub called the library and play foosball was a big Foosball player. There was a guy at the that that was a bartender at the library, who I met his name was Eldridge. And Eldridge and Felix were roommates at the time. And they were looking for a guitar player, a lead guitar player for a band for their band. They had written the song, the two of them and Felix and Eldridge shared the lead singing responsibilities and they were looking for a guitar player. So I went met, I met Felix at his house the first time I met him. And he lived, you know, like in mid mid city, New Orleans around there. And I met him we sat down we talked a little bit and then we had a couple of rehearsals. We had a bass player named Tony calcic. And our drummer was rusty Hauser and the band was called shepherds, Bush and we we performed all original stuff that was all Felix's material and that was back in 1973 had to be 1973 might have even been 72 You know I can't remember exactly right. That was around the time it

Randy Hulsey  09:41

was well if you're like me, I don't remember what I had for lunch yesterday let alone what I was doing back in 1972. Even though my long term memory is a little better than my my short term memory. But you so we spoke of guy gal So who of course is the drummer for zebra and he will be on I show on the 21st. So I'm looking forward to that. Stay tuned for his interview coming up. Now you guys were together, six, seven years when Atlantic Records came calling, I believe. How did the discovery with Atlantic happen was this by way of demos? Did they see did was there an a&r guy that you were found in a club play in? I mean, how did that discovery take place?

Randy Jackson - Zebra  10:28

Well, we had come to New York in 1977. And we were managed by a couple of different managers along the way. And one of our managers put us in the studio to make some demos. And he had a connection at Atlantic. So we made the demos back in 77, he took them to Atlantic and Atlantic turned him down. They flat out didn't want to have anything to do with it. And he was very well off on a lot of nightclubs, all over Long Island. And he got really busy. You know, he didn't really have time for the band after that. And, you know, he always took care of us and stuff. But we were doing well. And, but we our goal was to get a record deal. So we left his management and we went out to California for a while and hooked up with another guy who was managing us for about six months. Who he is his name is Jim record. He was also managing Christine McVie at the time. And he took the demo, we made some more demos out there, too, with him. And he tried to shop and didn't have any luck, either. And when we decided to leave, and we left California came back to Long Island to do some gigs. And that was when Bob Buckman who was the program director at a radio station in Long Island, radio stations web A B, and he had been playing the zebra music in regular rotation on web A B, people were asking for it. And he had copies of all the demos. And you know, it was really, you know, very well requested at the station because people couldn't buy it.

Randy Hulsey  12:08

Now. These are. These are still demos, right? These aren't these aren't the stuff that we heard come from Atlantic, right. So we're no no demo days. Okay.

Randy Jackson - Zebra  12:17

These are demos. Yeah. And he had five demos that he was playing in regular rotation. And at a certain point, he got to visit a young guy named Jason Flom, who was just starting out in the music business. And he was with Atlantic Records. And he came in, I think, to try to get one of Atlantic's new artists played on WB ab. And he was having a meeting with Bob Buckman the program director, and during the meeting, Bob Buckman told him, you know, you really should you guys should really check out this band zebra, you know, he says, they got, you know, they're from here, their local band here on Long Island, and they've got top five requests here at the station. And Jason says, Oh, that's great. You mean like that they got the top five requests for local bands? He says, no, no, they got the top five requests, period. And he shows the research, here's in through the outdoor LEDs up when you know, the song, all of my love or whatever. Here's back in black, you know, at number seven, and all of these top five songs are all zebra. And he's going wait a minute, he's like drawing? Yeah, there's something not quite right here. And but that's how big we were locally, you know, in Long Island. I mean, we had really gotten a huge following. So Jason went back to Atlantic with this information and a copy of the demo tape. Atlantic had a new president at that point, Doug Morris, and Doug heard the tape or heard the story from Jason. So he figured he would, you know, listen to the tape on the way home. Jason was just starting out at the at the label and to get the president's ear was a lot but Jason Jason had the connections to do that, you know, his father was a bigwig at Warner's. So that's how he'd gotten the introduction job to begin with. At any rate, Doug Morris is on the way home. The story is told me anyway. And he's being driven home. He's got a driver in the car and he's in the backseat and he takes the cassette tape and he puts it in the you know, the radio and turns it on. And it's the first song on the tape is who's behind the door with a long intro, you know, the long acoustic Enduro? Well, he doesn't even let it get to the vocal evidently, because it's just, you know, for the hook to get to the heart. So he objects, the tape, and the radio station is WNBA be in the car and they're playing the song they're playing it was by the door Yeah, one of the Yeah. Yeah. Evidently right around the same point he hadn't even heard it. You know, he just what timing. And so now he puts the tape back in, ejects the tape, he realizes he's listening to this, and this is on the air. And so he listens to it on the radio, as opposed to listening to it on the tape. And at the end of the song. The DJ says, you know that zebra number one requested song here WNBA B for the last two months, who's behind the door? And so we got a call the next day come in, you know, Atlantic wants to sign Yeah. And that was it. Wow.

Randy Hulsey  15:36

That's a cool story about the the tape popping out. And you just happen to be on the radio that you don't get much more lucky than that. I don't think now, do you? Well, you might have mentioned it. But what took you to New York to begin with was that I think there was a big scene music scene in New York. Is that what originally took you guys out there?

Randy Jackson - Zebra  16:00

No, I mean, originally, we just need we knew we needed to leave New Orleans. I mean, we we were doing about as much in the clubs as we could in New Orleans.

Randy Hulsey  16:10

kind of tapped out.

Randy Jackson - Zebra  16:12

Yeah, we just didn't think there was one way to go from there. And that was kind of down, we needed to leave the area, you know, and at least give it a break and then come back. And we needed to go where the record company for. And so it was either New York or Los Angeles. And we happen to know some people in New York, we also met a band in New Orleans that was touring at the time, that was from Long Island. And we played on the same bill with them. In New Orleans at the first Earth Day. It was an outdoor show we played and we were talking to them. And they, you know, been on the New York circuit for years and years and years. You know, before they got their start with a label and everything. And they told us they said, you know, we've been all around the country and the best local scene for rock bands right now is in the tri state area. And they said it's unbelievable. You can play like, five, six nights a week up there, you know? Wow, no problem. So that was another thing. You know, besides us having a connection here that kind of said, Okay, let's make it New York. So

Randy Hulsey  17:17

yeah, let make we did that makes sense. Now, do you remember the the demos that were being played on the radio? The songs that were the demos? Yeah,

Randy Jackson - Zebra  17:28

there was who's behind the door. There was taken fingers from my hair. One more chance and waiting to the summer's gone. And the last one is going to elude me I think might have been when you get there might have been a version of that.

Randy Hulsey  17:46

So basically everything but wait till wait until the summer's gone. showed up on the debut album, right and wait until the dawn didn't come around till No telling lock in. Right? Yeah,

Randy Jackson - Zebra  17:58

right. Okay. Now, we hadn't written tell me what you want at that point.

Randy Hulsey  18:02

Okay. Now, you guys, it's my understanding. You had the fastest selling debut album in Atlantic Records history selling, I think 75,000 copies in the first week. Is that right?

Randy Jackson - Zebra  18:16

Yep. A lot of people take that and say it's the fastest selling debut album, or the fastest selling album. But it wasn't, it was the fastest selling debut album and what they meant by that none. None of the three of us had ever been on a record before. So there was no track record for any of the three of us. So if you take a band, like, let's say Led Zeppelin, you know, well, you know, Jimmy Page had been in the Yardbirds, there was a track record there, you know. So the way they justified that was that, yeah, these none of these three guys have ever been on a record before so that that's what it was, and, and it was the fastest selling debut album by any artists there.

Randy Hulsey  18:59

And I think I'd read that it exceeded Led Zeppelin's debut album with Atlantic. Is that a fair statement? No,

Randy Jackson - Zebra  19:08

I never I never heard that. I don't know if it did or it didn't. It might have maybe LEDs up when needed to get AirPlay before the first record took off, you know, but I never checked into that. But then again, like I said, you know, if they were in a band before even foreigner doesn't count, you know, because Mick Jones had been in so many bands. Sure. That recorded

Randy Hulsey  19:29

now that effort was released in 83. Is that timeline, basically correct the debut and then so that's probably one of the greatest albums. For me as a an intake er of music. That's probably one of my all time favorite records. Kudos to you. You guys. material was super and now it's also my understanding that the album stayed on the Billboard charts for over eight months and it peaks somewhere around 20 9am i right on there. or do you really?

Randy Jackson - Zebra  20:01

Yeah, I don't know about I think. Cashbox had it at 29. I don't know what the billboard thing was, it was always somewhere up in that range. You know, I don't know exactly where billboard was, though.

Randy Hulsey  20:14

Gotcha. So to any of the listeners out there that haven't heard the debut album, please do yourself a favor. And, you know, look these guys up and take a listen to that. Who were your musical influences growing up from a not an individual perspective, but from a, a band perspective, who inspired you to be a musician to begin with?

Randy Jackson - Zebra  20:40

Well, I saw the Beatles in 1964. And my parents took my brother and I see the deal. And

Randy Hulsey  20:49

this is not you didn't see the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show. You went to see the Beatles, right. In her saw the Beatles lie. Okay. Yeah. All right. Because I had somebody on my show that said, The Beatles, they were my inspiration when I saw them for the first time. And it kind of sounded like they were at the Beatles show. But it was I think it was the Ed Sullivan thing that they saw.

Randy Jackson - Zebra  21:12

Ah, yeah, it was live. I mean, I'd seen The Ed Sullivan Show and everything. And that was very cool. But here, you know, was the proof. I mean, you know, you're young and I'm a little kid, you know, so who knows, you know, you switch from Huckleberry hound to The Beatles, you know, who knows what's real and what's not real? Yeah, transition? Yeah. But watching, you know, that stadium go wild. And, you know, the girl is just breaking through lines, the cops crying fight with their parents. Yeah, it was nuts. You know, it was really, really not. And it looked cool. So, you know, I think that was what just always stuck in my mind, in the back of my mind that this looks like a cool job. Yeah, this is like something. There's I was into sports sports a lot, too, you know, when I was younger, and loved playing sports and everything, but the music was always, you know, always part of it.

Randy Hulsey  22:06

What's the sport of choice for you?

Randy Jackson - Zebra  22:08

I love football. I wrestled in high school, soccer, you know, played some soccer. But I was I found out in high school, that I couldn't do contact sports anymore. I had shooting some basketball in my driveway, and I did a jump shot. And I hit my back against a little ledge by the window. And it, you know, it hurt a little bit. It wasn't like that injured me. To the point, I couldn't play sports anymore. But we, you know, but it was bothering me for a couple of weeks. And so my mom said, you know, you really go get that X ray. So we did, we went and got an x ray. But the X ray showed that there was no damage from what had happened with the basketball thing, but that I had a congenital defect, something I was born with, oh, called Spondylus basis. And also I was missing some lock, locks on two vertebrae connected the L four and the L five. For all you doctors out there. And, and so it was just the vertebrae are just slipping, you know, around, and we went to three different, you know, experts to see what could be done. One guy said, oh, you know, we can fuse, fuse them together. And this is back in the 60s too, you know, right, let's fuse them together. Somebody else said, Oh, don't worry about it at all, you know, go ahead and do what you got to do. Do the sports and everything and, and the third guy said, I wouldn't get it views. Because there's a good chance you'll be you could have permanent damage from the future and not really do good, especially back then. And then he said, you know, but you gotta quit the context for it. Because that's what's going to do it. Yeah. If you get popped the wrong way or get hit wrong. Sideways, you know, you could end up paralyzed. Yeah. That's the route we took, you know, do nothing and just play it say, yeah, that's when music kind of took over.

Randy Hulsey  24:06

Yeah, that's certainly less contact in music unless you maybe pull Steven Tyler and fall off the stage during a show than that could be. Yeah, what damaging but I think if I'm not mistaken, in I could be wrong. I think that's what Mick Mars the guitarist for Motley Crue has as well. I don't know if you knew that or not. But no, I certainly the listeners out there, in fact, check me on that. But, you know, I followed the crew for you know, like everybody did in the 80s. And, you know, he just, you know, over the years he's just gotten really hunched over from from that disease. I'm and I'm 99.5% sure that that's what he has. So I mean, I guess that's living proof that it can be. It can be debilitating for sure if it gets if it gets out of hand. Or how about how How about guitar influences? You know, we talked about the Beatles were it for you from a band perspective, what about one or two or what you know, maybe the main guitar player that made you move or gravitate towards the guitar and not the, you know, the recorder or the the blues harp or what another instrument who led to the guitar?

Randy Jackson - Zebra  25:22

Well, I mean, the Beatles led me to the guitar, but as far as playing, you know, the playing style, you know, I have to say, it's got to be more Allman Brothers, like Dickey Betts Duane Allman most Muscle Shoals, so it's sort of yep, yep. Jimmy Page. Led Zeppelin, of course, you know, a little later on. I loved Hendrix, I learned a lot from Hendrix. And Grand Funk. Yeah. Mark Farner. Yeah, yeah, Mark ponder that was good as Mark would play tasty stuff, but it wasn't too hard to play, you know, wasn't like, you know, trying to learn heartbreak or something like that, you know, he, you know, he kept this stuff simple and tasty. And you know, you could learn it, so I didn't, I learned a lot, a lot of stuff on the guitar, listening to Mark.

Randy Hulsey  26:08

Yeah, I had watched a documentary the other day. And it was about Muscle Shoals and I didn't know much about it. And there was a line in Sweet Home Alabama that says, Muscle Shoals has got the Swampers, right? Uh huh. Do you have any idea what the Swampers are because I didn't know before I watched this but I was curious if a music guy like you knows

Randy Jackson - Zebra  26:36

he only I'm gonna guess. I know they had maybe a horn section or something like that. But I don't know if that's what the Swampers were, but then they must must have been a group of musicians.

Randy Hulsey  26:48

They were the studio musicians there in Muscle Shoals. Yeah, so okay, I had always heard that Muscle Shoals has got the Swampers and I'm like what? Ellis swamper. Right. Exactly. And at the end, right, so I learned what a swamper is anyway, for the listeners out there that needed a bit of music trivia. So what kind of stuff are you listening to? Now? Is there anything inside or outside the rock genre that that Randy Jackson finds appealing for? For me? You know, I was always a rock guy, the zebra Led Zepplin inspired by all the great 70s and 80s bands, 60s bands. And then I started getting into this Americana genre. So I didn't know if there's anything that is appealing to you or to you just not listened to. You just write and play or kind of talk us through that a little bit.

Randy Jackson - Zebra  27:42

Well, I mean, lately, I've been just playing and playing and playing, especially since the COVID came around every day, pretty much every day, I do a show on Facebook, you know, just me and the acoustic guitar. And in the process, I've been learning some songs, a lot of cover songs that I never did before, and buy some bands that, you know, that I always liked, but I never learned any of their stuff. But it's all early 70s, early 60s, you know, because I really think that your greatest love is going to be what you grew up with in high school. Absolutely. 100% Yeah. And it really goes for anybody, any age, you know, that's, you know, now you can understand why your parents couldn't stand it when you put the Beatles on

Randy Hulsey  28:32

it up there. grow out of that you'll grow out of that hippie, manga and stuff that you're listening to. I heard it growing up I was I had the long hair and, and did all of that. And mom and dad were always supportive of my music, of course, but it was always you're gonna cut that hair one day and you're gonna outgrow all this stuff that you're listening to. I'm like, alright, well, I guess when that day comes, we'll will outgrow it at that point in time. And I still had I'm 55 years old, I still haven't outgrown it. So

Randy Jackson - Zebra  29:00

you know, if I had to pick somebody, and that's not really recent, but it's recent, more recent than than what I'm talking about not back in the 70s. You know, I like Bruno Mars. I like I said, my his material, good writing and great perform.

Randy Hulsey  29:16

You're right about that. And it's probably not the genre of music that I gravitate towards probably much like you, but you have to give props where props are due. I mean, that guy is he's like prints. I mean, the guy can play everything and seeing everything and you talk about great material, for sure, for sure. And people love him and he selling records on now. So you can't dog him too hard. Now. So let's talk a little about zebra discography in 83. Of course, you guys released the self titled album called Zebra Of course, this record went gold. Correct and for for the listeners out there that don't understand what a gold status is, can you help them to understand what does that mean? If your record goes gold, what does that mean and record sales?

Randy Jackson - Zebra  30:09

It meant you sold 500,000 copies a half a million copies. And if you sold a million you were platinum. Okay? That will platinum is 2 million.

Randy Hulsey  30:18

Okay? And so that was the cornerstone record for zebra. This is such an influential album for zebra and I mean, every song is awesome on there. And right off the top of my head. There are three albums that come to mind for me, that are front to back solid albums. Like we're like every song is great to me. One of them is Def Leppard hysteria. Great record. The second one who I'm sure you're you've had to have run into these guys somewhere being a Cajun is the so fired up record from LaRue Maru. Yeah. And the third one, of course, is the debut record from Zebra. Those are those are the three there. I don't know. Did you know any of the guys with Leroux? I think when I was really into them, I think Fergie was still the singer. At the time. Of course, that's when I was going to USL and Lafayette so they were really big then.

Randy Jackson - Zebra  31:18

I didn't meet anybody in LaRue until, you know, after the zebra records come out. And you know, now we're, we're great friends. We've done tons of gigs with them, you know, okay, they're awesome musicians.

Randy Hulsey  31:30

Absolutely. And I think Fergie play and I don't remember the order, but I think he was singing with Toto for a while if I'm not mistaken. Where was the debut record recorded was that in New York,

Randy Jackson - Zebra  31:44

a lot of it was recorded at the Record Plant in New York. Some of it was recorded at Atlantic Studios in New York. We also recorded some of it his studio in the country down in Bogalusa. Oh, outside of Bogalusa. Yeah. So we brought Jack Douglas, our producer down to he stayed with me and slide out my wife and I had a had a house and slide owl and we would commute from there to studio in the country. So Gotcha. We did I think we also did a little workout on Long Island. gonna forget the name. I can't remember

Randy Hulsey  32:21

what bands were you guys on tour with when you were supporting the debut release?

Randy Jackson - Zebra  32:28

We toured with Loverboy for a while. We also did a lot of shows with Cheap Trick. Okay, that a whole West Coast run with Cheap Trick. And then we did sporadic gigs with different bands. We we opened up for ZZ Top a couple of times. I don't know I we opened up for Aerosmith, but we didn't I don't think the record was out at that point. Okay, that was on Long Island but we played played in New Orleans at a an outdoor festival, where it was journey and Bobcat Bryan Adams in

Randy Hulsey  33:01

favor. Sounds like you're in good company there for sure. Yeah,

Randy Jackson - Zebra  33:04

it was a great show.

Randy Hulsey  33:05

So what I'd like to do is play the staple cut off of the debut record. We'll take a listen to that. And then we'll we'll come back and chat a little bit about the song in here's a clip of who's behind the door.

Adam Gordon  33:19

Say sailed away we slipped away so hard is what now

Randy Hulsey  33:43

what? Would you say that that's probably the most popular song that zebras ever written? Or would you say that's not a fair statement?

Randy Jackson - Zebra  34:43

You know, hard to tell? Yeah. I mean, a lot of people love telling me what you want. And then take your fingers from my hair. They asked for that too. You know, that's a real popular one. Absolutely. But um, from from me, that's my that's the one that I that I have. I'm so glad that that song, you know, got the AirPlay it did and got the exposure to it,

Randy Hulsey  35:06

for sure. Now, was that song, a song that was developed over time? Or was that one of those 10 minute, quick write songs that just comes to you put it down? In it, it just happens what what kind of song was that?

Randy Jackson - Zebra  35:21

Well, there was a whole lot of parts that I had come up with using this open G tuning. And I had just a lot of different parts. And I didn't have a really have a theme for the song until I started trying to put the parts together. And then the lyrics kind of wrote themselves when I realized what I was writing about, you know, you know, so it took a while it was a couple of years of going through different, you know, verses choruses and whatnot. And melodies. Tell me what you want, on the other hand was like, the 10 minute song that you refer to? Yeah, yeah. Came up one morning, and it was just there, you know, Deputy arrangement, it was all written really quick. Yeah. And

Randy Hulsey  36:05

you know, I've watched a lot of these these episodes with live from Carol's house. You know, Daryl Hall brings musicians into his home. And he was saying that songs like rich girl, were written in like, 10 minutes. And it's like, to me, that's just mind blowing to me that, you know, you have a song that is still catching airplay, you know, how many years 3030 years later, and it's still as popular today as it was back then. That's, yeah, that's really amazing. Now, in the song, who's behind the door? There's quite a few references to we like Wi Fi, we like we sailed away. Now we know. How can we find out more? Who owns the keyless door? Who is the we reference? In the song?

Randy Jackson - Zebra  36:54

It's really kind of a whole world, you know, okay, humanity. You know,

Randy Hulsey  36:58

I was looking also I think at one time, the debut album, maybe I did, maybe I didn't see it on like, iTunes and Spotify, but it's not there. Now, is there? Is there a reason that it's not there now that

Randy Jackson - Zebra  37:13

yeah, there's a reason we're having to negotiate with the name of the label it Atlantic, put all their stuff to this, this label. And now, I don't know who were negotiating. Before this. I can't even remember, but it's an unimportant, and we, you know, we put an injunction for them to stop selling it until we negotiated, okay, something different. And that's what's going on right now. And then when, when we get that settled, it'll be back up again.

Randy Hulsey  37:44

Okay. And I didn't mean to, like, pick on a sore subject. But I was really asking more for, to make sure that I wasn't going crazy, because I said to myself, when I started preparing, you know, for my, you know, my outline and the clips that I would play, I could have sworn at some point in time that was out there. And so I started second guessing myself, like, Randy, are you are you getting? Are you getting old and senile? And you can't remember what your what you see anymore. So anyway, so I'm glad you clarified that for me.

Randy Jackson - Zebra  38:18

I think the third the third album, and a live album should still be out there it is.

Randy Hulsey  38:22

It is yeah. The the third Yes, that's right. Yes, you are correct. I was trying to remember, in September ish, 1984 you guys released No telling lies, which was the sophomore effort. Correct? How hard is it to follow a gold debut? Like what's, you know, if you're not a muse, for the people that are listening, some are going to be musicians, some are not musician, some just love the music they listen to. Because I think there's a facade to music that it's easy, man, these guys just go out. And they play songs every night. And, man, that's the greatest job ever. But they don't realize that music is a business. And with business, they're stressed because you you have to commit to do certain things for the people to make money. Right. So I didn't know share a little bit about, you know, what that the stress level is trying to follow up to to a gold record?

Randy Jackson - Zebra  39:21

Well, I mean, I think, for me, anyway, the biggest stress was we had eight years to pick the best songs for the first record. And, you know, we were out on the road promoting the record. And what I should have been doing while we were out on the road was writing more for the second record, and I didn't do it. I just was out on the road. I wasn't even thinking about that, you know, and nobody was bringing it up to me. You know, I didn't have anybody cracking a whip and you were doing Yeah, we had we had a lot of material that was left over you know from the from the first record, but It's still, to me. I mean, I wish I would have done what I did, after the second record, which was just write and write and write, that's all I did, you know, while we were on the road with the second record, and I wrote songs and ended up being on the third record. So, as an album goes, I'm happier with the third album that I am with the second album, the second album, to on album ish for me, you know, and, and there were some things on there that, you know, didn't need to go on there, you know, we should have had some better material. But, you know, it's got some got its points, you know, lullaby was one of the songs that I wrote, during, you know, between the first and the second record, and I think that's a really good song and special. Absolutely. Now, you got to write, yeah. All the musicians out there, don't stop writing, you know?

Randy Hulsey  40:55

Well, and that was a great segue into what I was going to ask you next in I was gonna, I was gonna ask, is it safe to assume that you already had all of the material for no telling lies? Before you read you released the debut album? Or did you write the entire effort in one year, because it seems like you know, you release the debut and 83 You turned around and let the sophomore effort go, and 84. And that's, I mean, if you're touring band, a one year window, that's, you got to be on your A game to come up with, you know, songs, and they're cohesive, and that kind of thing. So I'm gonna assume that a lot of that material was written pre.

Randy Jackson - Zebra  41:37

Yeah, they may or may not have been organized, it may not have been arranged at the time, but the basic meat of each song was already there. Right. Some of the songs we had been playing like bears and waiting into summer's gone. And then there were other ones like, but no more that I had, you know, a big section for and then guys, wife, Angie, actually, Angie, at the time, she had come up with a Greg middle section for but no more. And so we put those together, and they work and kind of a little, putting the puzzles together, you know. And it's, but then getting back to it, you know, I wish that I would have written it in writing more, you know, we've just been a better thing. So I can't stress that enough to whoever's writing, but you think a year is is is an eternity? Well, it's not and but think about the Beatles putting sometimes three albums out one year. I mean, that's crazy. Well, they're do that year after year or a year. That's just not well, you know,

Randy Hulsey  42:45

there's the Beatles. And then there's everybody else, right,

Randy Jackson - Zebra  42:48

I think. Yeah. I mean, it's just, it's crazy. Yeah.

Randy Hulsey  42:51

Right. And certainly, yeah, they were prolific like that, just like Elvis, it seemed like he had 178,000 albums out. It's like, where do you? How does your brain even think of this much stuff? I get writer's block, thinking of one or two songs to write and you've written 700 albums, and all this come from right.

Randy Jackson - Zebra  43:10

Well, you know, Elvis really wasn't writing itself. It was written for him, you know? Uh huh. So, you know, that's the amazing part. I mean, just to record all the stuff that Elvis did, that's a lot of work. I mean, just recording album after album after album, you know, learning the songs and stuff. That's a lot of work, but to write it, and and record it. I mean,

Randy Hulsey  43:32

that's amazing. He was what was kind of in the I was I played a show in Nashville, in October of last year, and I went to Studio B, where a lot of his stuff was recorded, and it was quite eerie sitting in that studio, and knowing what kind of music came out of that. That place. It's it was a really magical kind of tour to sit in there and just kind of, you know, they turn the lights out. Yeah, absolutely. And some of the greats like the Everly Brothers, and of course, Elvis had written there and really phenomenal. It was a it was a cool thing to see while I was there. Now, what bands were you on tour with when you were supporting? No telling lies.

Randy Jackson - Zebra  44:22

We did a tour with Sammy Hagar. West Coast tour. And then on the east, east coast, we were with REO Speedwagon and survivor and we toured like, you know, all over the south and the east with them. Would you that was Sammy his last tour before he joined Van Halen.

Randy Hulsey  44:45

Okay, now I also read something recently that the show that you did at Soldier Field with Sammy Hagar was probably one of the biggest attended shows that you guys did that I read that right?

Randy Jackson - Zebra  44:57

Or think it probably was, I mean, I think there were 50,000 people there. Yeah, that's a pretty big crowd. Yeah, I know we had a little over 40,000 with the journey show in New Orleans. Yeah. Yeah, that's a lot of people

Randy Hulsey  45:13

for sure. And then so I'm gonna take the listeners to a clip of a song that was off the the sophomore effort. This is a track called bears. We'll take a listen to it. And then I'll come back and Randy and I will chat a little bit about that song buy yourself time with JC? One of my favorite songs right there great song. Would you say that the song is making a statement about the opposition to hunting? Or is it more of a song that touches on animal abuse? Or is it none of the above?

Randy Jackson - Zebra  46:59

It has to do really about hunting, you know, I'm not I'm not a big fan of hunting. You know, my grandfather had a farm in right outside of Dallas, a little town called point. He raised cattle. You know, he had ponds on the farm and we used to fish and you know, he would go out and hunt a little bit, you know, Hunt pheasant, you know, birds and stuff like that, you know, but, you know, as I grew up, I just, you know, I just didn't get it. You know, it just seemed a little foreign to, you know, in this thing. This animal's life. Yeah. Just because you were you're having fun. Yeah, you were going out, you know, and making the excuse that it was food just never that's why I became kind of why I'm a vegetarian, you know? Yeah, the last 30 years so

Randy Hulsey  47:44

well, the the Randy's definitely agree on that. I'm by no means a an activist or anything like that. I'm not an extremist. But I've never understood. I mean, you know, my dad was on deer hunting leases. And granted, I know, sometimes the herds have to be sand. And of course, people will make the argument that, well, you you eat meat that has to be killed. But yeah, I get you know, you can make all kinds of arguments, but I even go and as a young boy, go into Central Texas, to the hunting lease. I never, I shot cans and stuff with my gun. Like I'd never wanted to go kill birds and squirrels and things. Yeah, just, it's not what I do. It's not what I care anything about. Would you say that? Bears might be one of your favorite songs that you've written? And I know, I know. Everybody loves all the songs. They they're all a labor of love. For sure. Right. And I'm not trying to single a song out. But does bears fall in the upper 10% of the songs that you've written from a favorite perspective? Or is it in the middle somewhere or down low? What would you say?

Randy Jackson - Zebra  48:55

I think, you know, as far as the message goes, it's definitely you know, on the top, for me in the top. Yeah. And you know, the song is good. You know it musically, but I don't know that it's one of my favorites all around, you know, but it's, but I think the message brings it up, you know? Sure. One of my top top ones. Yeah.

Randy Hulsey  49:15

Now, the third effort from Zebra was released in 86. And it's titled 3.5. Correct? Right. Can you explain the title of the album to the listeners, you know, you had the debut. That's album one. No telling lies as to and then you come up with one called 3.5. What's the meaning behind 3.52?

Randy Jackson - Zebra  49:40

It took too long. To show what it was, you know. So, you know, it was you know, I think almost, you know, was 84 was the release the second record and then 86 was the third record. It was like two years in the process. That recording took a long time. You know, we produced it ourselves. So, you know, when we were coming up with a title I just figured, you know, hey, let's just, you know, there you go throw it out there. Yeah, yeah.

Randy Hulsey  50:08

Well, we'll play a clip from that release. This is a song called time and we'll take a quick listen to that and then come back and chat

Adam Gordon  50:19

from the heart it's holding back

Randy Hulsey  50:32

the forces of the Destiny state used to be so lonely. Never thought that awkward never thought never ever so that was a tune called time and Randy, can you share with me specifically, but certainly for the listeners kind of what the the meaning behind the song? What was it written about?

Randy Jackson - Zebra  51:32

It's written about time that you know, how much it affects our lives. And, and yet, it it has no, you know, it, it itself doesn't seem to be affected. It's, you know, it takes us from the cradle to the grave, you know, and then there's a little bit of, of all the love song inner woven in there, you know, relationship. But it all has to do with bother time that it takes on and that it doesn't really care thing for you, you know,

Randy Hulsey  52:03

it doesn't. And it becomes more clear. You know, you know, I'm not an old guy, and you're not an old guy. But we're not young guys anymore, either. And time takes on a whole new meaning. And it seems to go much faster now than it ever did. I think about things that happened a while back. And I mean, just like the death of John Denver. It seems like it was like four or five years ago, and it's been over 20 years since we lost John Grinder, right? And it's like, Where? Where did the time go? Anyway, not to get all morbid on everybody. But in that song time, it sounds like you're playing in an open G tuning Am I correct there? Yeah. And what percentage of zebra songs are written in open tunings as a guitarist? What percentage would you say are written in open?

Randy Jackson - Zebra  52:54

Well, the the, you know, there was the two who's behind the door in time. And then you had 123. On the fourth Seba record, I think maybe there was 1234, there were four on the report that were written in the open G. So you have six songs all together out of what 40 songs, you know, whatever that percentage is, you know, six out of 40

Randy Hulsey  53:22

Yeah, sure. And would you say that the other is it safe to say that the other songs that were not an open G? Were they all just in standard tuning

Randy Jackson - Zebra  53:32

just the standard tuning? Yeah, although I do a lot of different tunings, you know, besides just the open G, and I'm hoping I'll be using those, you know, in future recording,

Randy Hulsey  53:44

and what what kind of open tunings or tunings are you talking about there,

Randy Jackson - Zebra  53:49

I use Open, open C, open C minor, okay, I dropped the, I've got a, you know, I do an open G with a drop D on you know, which a lot of people just call an open G, but the G that I've used for the zebra songs that have already been recorded, I use two G's, one on the east of the low E string and one on the A string. So I've tuned up there, they're kind of droning together, you know, yeah.

Randy Hulsey  54:19

Well, I have to I probably speak for the other 8 million and a half guitarists out there that have ever as a, as a beginner guitarist, you have these songs that you're inspired by, and you're like, Oh, I've got to learn that song. Right. And as a as a beginner guitarist, that that was that was probably one of the songs on my list, and there's nothing more frustrating. And that pisses you off more than to number one, try to learn a song like that that's hard enough in and of itself, but to try to play it in a standard tuning, not even knowing that you're not even tuned to the same thing that I was doing. then trying to learn the damn thing. So anyway, that's

Randy Jackson - Zebra  55:05

the weight room way I started playing that open G was through kind of what you're talking about. I wanted to learn how to play the rain song. Led Zeppelin. Yeah. And so, you know, I realized pretty quickly that it was impossible to do it, you know, in a regular tuning. So I'm thinking, maybe he's, you know, just overdub this whole thing, you know, and to two different guitars. But I, the more I listened to it, I said, No, there's one guitar playing this. And then I said, Okay, let's tune it differently. And that's what I did, you know, I returned my guitar and came up with this open G, and figured out how to play the rain song in open G. And it worked. It turns out years later, when when he finds Jimmy Page finally comes up with the tunings that he used, that he didn't even he used a different tuning, but it was an open G, right. And his tuning makes it a lot easier to get to, because because I'm stretching my fingers all over the place, but I was still able to do it. But you know, if I didn't do that, if I hadn't learned that probably would have never come up with the who's behind the door time or any of the other songs I didn't know.

Randy Hulsey  56:15

It's amazing how much easier the song becomes when you actually tune the guitar correctly. Right? For what you're trying to play. Yeah. Why would you say you write in open tuning? Is it for variety? Is it because to you as a guitarist, it's easier to play?

Randy Jackson - Zebra  56:33

No, I it's a little more inspirational, I think. I think you can do a lot more with the guitar by itself when you're in an open tuning. You know, it just sounds bigger. And it gives you a different perspective. That's what it did for me, you know, I just liked the sound of it, the the atmosphere it provides, you know,

Randy Hulsey  56:55

and it's beautiful when you just when you're able to not fret A string on any guitar, much less a 12 string, and you just let the string ring open. There's there's a big sound that comes out of that, especially a 12 string, and I remember fumbling through YouTube some way a long time ago. And there was a guy play in a pirate looks at 40 by Jimmy Buffett. And every every time he would go back to what I later learned was G. His whole hand was coming off the fretboard and he was just struggling. I'm like, hold on a minute. I'm not I'm not getting this right. How in the hell is he playing the G and not even holding any string but this was before I knew anything about open terrain, right. So anyway, that's my open tuning story there. What bands? Were you on tour with supporting the 3.5 record? You remember? I'm sure you

Randy Jackson - Zebra  57:54

well, we we didn't tour with too many bands. We went out and wanted to headline smaller venues. Okay, it's kind of what we did. I I'm sure we we never we didn't tour with anybody that

Randy Hulsey  58:07

okay, so you were you were headlining, but I know that you had acts that opened up for you when you were touring bands like Dream Theater come to mind. Maybe Queen's Reich. Bryan Adams. Sabotage, sabotage. Yeah. Any others that I missed there that you can think of?

Randy Jackson - Zebra  58:28

I mean, there were tons of bands like not that any are coming to mind. You know, those are the three main ones that I can remember that really took off. Yeah. But yeah, we did two shows with Queens Reich. One of them was in Portland, Oregon, and one was in Seattle.

Randy Hulsey  58:48

Okay, that was a Baylor neck of the woods then. Yeah,

Randy Jackson - Zebra  58:51

but they were just starting off. They were just, you know, they hadn't. I don't know how much they played out. You know. So they opened the show. And, and they did great. Yeah, they got him kicked off. You know, the, I think each theater was like three three to 4000 people, you know, in the places were packed, so it was good.

Randy Hulsey  59:08

I've always been a big queens, right. Yeah, I've always been a big Queens rock fan, you know, back from warning to Empire. They had a they had some great stuff out. I don't know that much about Dream Theater. Although I do know there are some phenomenal musicians in that band because I stumbled across them on YouTube and I was watching a Rig Rundown with the keyboardist. And it's like that guy's on a different freakin planet than you know. I mean, it's just like the equipment is just amazing, like technologies. It's so frustrating yet it's so amazing all at the same time. And his rig is a hell of a rig and for Dream Theater, you know, they have a big sound. It's a big production. So you can imagine are all incredibly musician for sure. Now, back in some time around 81 I may be jogging a part of your memory that you don't want to remember, but Back in 81, you had some gear stolen. And in of all places, it had to be Houston Of course, which is where I am kind of puts a pimple on select the pimple on the ass or whatever what, you know, whatever. But anyway, you guys zebra had some gear stolen from Houston. And later on there was a famous 80s band that staged a concert. For you guys that help replace all of that stolen gear. Can you share the story about where you are when the gear was stolen? And who staged the benefit to try to replace some of the gear or all of the gear for you guys?

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:00:38

Yeah, it was in 1981. And we were at. We were down in Houston. Playing I think it was a gig at cardies. Maybe we were playing. We had hotel rooms at the La Quinta. So

Randy Hulsey  1:00:53

you're live in large back then. Right in?

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:00:57

The lucky? Yeah, they took the whole truck. They truck they stole the whole truck. I mean, they didn't take the equipment. It was just an empty parking lot. Unbelievable. Yeah. And so twisted sister who was playing on the circuit up here in New York. At the time. I mean, this is 1981. Nobody had records out at this point, you know. But Twisted Sister was a big band up here. And the good rats who I told you we had met in New Orleans, they performed at the benefit and also a band called Southern Cross. So all three of those bands and zebra perform. It was on a Tuesday night. And you know, we raised enough money at that one show to just walk into SAM ash music The next day, and buy all our stage gear back. Wow.

Randy Hulsey  1:01:45

Well, thank goodness for one of our friends in high places. Right? You have to appreciate Yeah. And that was that was awesome. Yeah, kind of a segue. We were talking about stolen gear. Let's talk about your gear. Is there a guitar and I know you you switch them out probably for different sounds and different tunings, of course for the for the non guitar listener out there. But is there a guitar of choice for live shows? Is there one that's just the guitar for you?

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:02:17

You know, I over the years I've played different guitars I used to have a one of the guitars that got stolen was the CC rich Mockingbird. Supreme awesome guitar really sounded great. Never do get another one. But that was that was one of my favorites. I bought a BC rich bitch after that. And I played for years and years. And I use the Les Paul in the studio for a lot of the studio recording. And now I'm playing Michael Kelly, guitar that I designed that both acoustic and electric. And those are the guitars I'm playing right now. And they're, you know, they've got everything on them that I wanted, you know, so I fulfilled everything I needed. Yeah. So those are guitars I'm playing

Randy Hulsey  1:03:04

but backing up just a little bit. I think I had asked you in a text message some time back, I saw Lita Ford playing a white BC rich that looked identical to yours. And I asked you did she buy your guitar? And I think your response was no, she has one of her own. Is that the guitar that you're referring to the the light one that was strong way back? At the end of the guitar on the bar? Yeah. Yeah.

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:03:34

Yeah, that's, well, that's the double neck version of it. When the equipment was stolen, I had a double, a double neck PC rich, stolen, and I had the mockingbird supreme stolen. And so when we went to buy the new equipment, I'm gonna buy a double neck and a single neck. You know, right. Yep, the same at the same time. And they were going to have to order them from the factory. So they said, What color do you want? Because we'll make them both identical, will do the paint job at the same time so that they have the exact same coat. And that's what they did, you know, so that was back in 1981. I got a guitar. Yeah,

Randy Hulsey  1:04:13

yeah. And I think I've seen you play. I think I saw you play a live show. Not not in person. And personally, much like the Beatles conversation. It was on YouTube, of course. But I think you were playing and we're we're you may be Amityville, and I think you were playing a Martin at the time. Yep. And then when Martin acoustic Yeah. And then I funny story is I consulted with Martin and Taylor guitars for a reseller here in Houston for a while. And there's always the argument, which is better, which is better. And I'm a I'm a Taylor player. I'm partial to the Taylor so the female artists that I was playing with at the time, she was a big Martin player and I would always tell her well, you know, when you When you graduate to a great guitar, you're going to you're going to go buy yourself a tailor. So you know, it says that argument, but anyway, no Martins are great guitars and I think if I remember also correctly, did you ever play a guild? Were you a guild player at one time as well?

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:05:16

I had a guild 12 string that I did to record the first Seba record. And, and, and the third Seba record, you know, and I used to play it live guild 12 string. Yeah. And I still have that guitar, you know, but it didn't have a pickup system in it. You know, we I always I was always using the those remember those pickups used to put in the hole? Yeah. You know, and, and it would just kind of sit in there with a spring. Yeah. And so, yeah, the, you know, the the electronics in the acoustic guitar is what makes the difference for me, you know, as to whether I'm going to like the sound of it. I mean, having it sound good acoustically is good for recording, but 90% of what I do is playing live. Exactly. It's got to have a it's got got to have a great pickup system on it. Yeah.

Randy Hulsey  1:06:03

So we you spoke of Michael Kelly guitars a minute ago. I see a lot of your Facebook Lives with the Michael Kelly. How did you hear about Michael Kelly guitars? Where did that come from? Of all the well known names out there, you know, like some that we just mentioned. And you're you're playing before you played it? I'd never heard of them. So tell the listeners a little bit how you came to find Michael Kelly guitars and the kind of the backstory there.

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:06:37

Well, my good friend, Steve zani who is a musician also. And I've known Steve. Well, probably 35 years now. He's from here in New York. I met him when he was he we used to work at Alex music down in, you know, on 48th Street, Manhattan. And he moved on to Sam ash eventually and worked there for years and years and years. And he became the president of Michael Kelly guitars. And when he did, he called me, he said, Listen, this guitar company, you know, and I'd never heard I'd heard of Michael Kelly. But I didn't know a whole lot about him. He says, Yeah, I'm the president of this company now. And we're going to redesign a bunch of these guitars. And I want you to come in, I want them to be a Randy Jackson model. I said, Well, that's great. You know, because none of these other companies that ever done that with me. And so I went and check the guitars out. And I really liked the fact that the Michael Kelly didn't have a hole underneath the string. And it works great live because of that, you know, less feedback. So it was natural. So we worked on the acoustic guitar for a couple of years actually getting the bridge right and everything and putting it at a price point that was affordable, you know.

Randy Hulsey  1:07:49

So when I guess I'd seen you play some Facebook live shows. And I kept seeing this Michael Kelly logo up in the, in the top left hand corner of the right hand of Mike, who was so I saw I started doing some digging. And then I learned that there was a signature guitar. And immediately I thought, Well, being a guitar collector and a guitarist, you know, and, you know, being a zebra fan for all these years, it's like, Well, I think I owe it to myself to to get a Randy Jackson signature model guitar. And it's not a mystery that I'll spend good money on good guitars. But I was thinking before I even looked at the website. I'm like, oh, boy, this is going to be a 5000 $7,000 job because I mean, it's it's a beautiful guitar. And I looked out there and I was like, wow, yeah, I'm I can buy a couple of these here and and give one to my son that play. So if if you guys are looking for a, an amazing sounding guitar and a beautiful guitar, make sure you check out Michael Kelly guitars. And there's a signature. Of course, they have different models, electric acoustics and whatnot. But yours is the the 40 port 12 Is that? Right? Correct. And tell us tell us when when a company makes a guitar for a player for you to endorse? What goes into that? Can you walk us through that at kind of a high level? Like I'm sure it's your specs and that kind of thing, but tell us what's on the 40 port 12 That makes it Randy Jackson and not Randy Hulsey.

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:09:34

Well, the electronics have to sound great. And we went through several different types of electronics on it. And we had a bunch of prototypes, you know, of the guitar that I played for, for a while out live and I would beat them up. You know, I mean, I was playing every week I'm playing like three, four gigs, you know, and so it had to have great electronic sound good. It needs to stay In tune, which means it needs a bridge, you know, especially on a 12 string, it needs a bridge that's going to stay solid. So we went through like three different versions of the, of the bridge to and, and did different things to reinforce the bridges to make them solid as a rock, but kept the lightness of the guitar. Finally, the third time around, we got it. And the guitar just you don't need the pins to put in. You don't use put pins into the guitar to put the strings in. You just hook them around. It's like a one less thing to do. So stringing the guitar is pretty easy. I mean, I just restrung the pro string today, and it took me a little less than 20 minutes. Wow, for 12 strings, which, you know, for me, that was pretty quick.

Randy Hulsey  1:10:45

And if anybody's ever tried to restring a 12 string is kind of an ass beaten to a certain degree, right? It take can be somebody asked me one time, man, how long does it take you to string that that 12 string that 12 string Taylor that you have I said twice as long as the sixth string?

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:11:05

Yeah, and sometimes it's twice as long as that when you end up putting the strings in the wrong place. Exactly.

Randy Hulsey  1:11:11

Well, what does that mean? What does that mean? When you have a a painless bridge, like most people that are in the guitars know that for acoustics, you have to push the pan

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:11:24

right to see Joey I have the guitar, I have the guitar right here,

Randy Hulsey  1:11:28

do it and we'll talk talk through it because of course, the listeners won't be able to see this video, I'll keep the video secure. But this is you know, if you're ever looking at an acoustic guitar, it has bridge pins down at the, you know, in the middle of the the top that hold the reason, right?

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:11:45

Yeah, but the strings go into a little hole here. And then you slide it this way, and pull it up. And it stays there.

Randy Hulsey  1:11:55

It's a locking auto locking basically. Yeah, yeah.

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:12:00

Yeah. It's kind of like, you know, on a on a door, you know, the key chain in the chain on the door, you know, you've arrived in the big hall, and then you slide it over to where it can't come out. Right. Yep. And that's how this, this works. Yeah.

Randy Hulsey  1:12:14

And I think that for the listeners out there, there's there can be some, if you're if you're not proficient with stringing a guitar, the bridge pins can be a hassle sometimes because they don't want to stay in and they keep popping out while you're trying to put tension on the strings. But that's, that's another conversation in and of itself. We won't get into guitar tech talk here. But I thanks for sharing that. That's, I think that might be the first one that I've seen with with no bridge pins. And and I'm sure there may be others out there, but I'm just not aware of them.

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:12:46

Well, I know you know, there's electric guitar, certainly there's a lot of them that you string through the back of your car, you know, you don't do that with this, you know, the back is just the back. Yes, you know, so you're stringing this thing to the front, right? And then the neck, the tuning pegs, the tuning keys are great. They say they're rock solid. And the nut is awesome. You know, there's no notching or right, you know, going out of tune and flipping, you know, so, I mean, for me, the worst thing is being out of tune. Yeah. And, and so the things got to stay in tune, and especially on a 12 string, and, and this thing, I beat the crap out of it. And unless the weather's really changing a whole lot, it stays in town.

Randy Hulsey  1:13:27

Yeah, well, you deal with a lot of humidity here in Houston. And that can be a challenge, keeping them in tune. And there, I think there was another old joke about the 12 string as well that a person playing a 12 string spends half of his life tune in the guitar, and then the other half of his life, he plays it out of tune. So unless you've made 11 play on the 12 string, like you have, I mean, I think you're synonymous with with the 12 string, you probably play between you and my musical mentor, the guy that made me ever pick up a guitar, he was a phenomenal flat picker and he was a solo artist and he everything he all of his shows were played with 12 string and he got everything you know, he's an Old Navy guy probably it's probably in his mid 60s now but you know, played all the old Neil Young stuff and just made everything sound beautiful on a on a 12 string guitar. It has so much more sound and especially when you're a solo artist, you know, a little more sound doesn't hurt. So yeah, so you're playing a ton of Facebook Live shows now. What are your thoughts on Facebook? Live for me so I started doing Facebook Live when Facebook Live kind of first came out this is way before COVID And for me for For me, I had been a musician back in the 80s playing in bands, and then I just went on hiatus like I didn't play anywhere, in somewhere around 2015 2016 I said, You know what, I'm gonna buy me a good acoustic guitar and start learning some tunes and, and go back out and hit some little wineries or, you know, start doing that kind of thing. And the way I cut my teeth, kind of getting my music out there was I jumped on this Facebook Live thing, and I I'm not saying that I was the first one to be on it by any stretch, but I was doing it. Like before COVID When everybody started using that as a, as a tool to not only to get their stuff out there, but to make money to supplement income for the musicians that weren't able to go out and tour right, what a wonderful tool it was, and is, but it's weird, you know, I'm sure you think the same thing. It's just weird playing to a cell phone sitting in front of you. And there's no interaction from anybody. It's like you're playing to a cinderblock wall. And I just wanted to get your, your feelings on that. It you know, it's tough to play all these songs and just not get a vibe back from something or somebody. What are your thoughts on the Facebook Live?

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:16:20

Well, I wanted it to be, you know, I started doing it after after COVID. You know, I was actually in New Orleans doing my last live show down there last March. And that's when they closed Louisiana, you know, Louisiana kind of shut down while I was there. And I just thought I'd just stay down there for a while until we figured out how it's gonna get back to New York, you know, and, and it was at that point that, you know, the Facebook Live look like, that was the thing to do so, but I wanted it to be more interactive. So I got myself a big screen. You know, like, right now I'm seeing you on a television screen, I'm looking straight at you. And I have the comments coming down at me while I'm doing the show. And I have them lined up to where I don't look like I'm looking off on the side or anything. I'm looking straight ahead. So I can see the comments while they're coming in. And, you know, my wife says you should shut your eyes and look like you're more into it, you know, but I'll miss people asking, you know, for certain songs, or, you know, asking questions, and I'm able to interact with them, you know, this way, you know, so there is more interaction. But, you know, I had to, you know, by I mean, it's a it's a huge television screen I've got in front of me that took to my computer. And, you know, I found out the hard way you need a really powerful computer in order to really do it. Right. Yeah. And you can't just do it with a laptop, you know, it just doesn't work

Randy Hulsey  1:17:44

and good internet speed and the whole nine yards. So yeah, yeah, it's it. The Facebook Live thing was a blessing for sure. And it certainly was there at the right time, especially like I said, when, when bands and artists were not able to get out and support themselves and the bars and the venues and whatnot. So you know, it gave them a little bit of supplemental income. They're

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:18:12

the help to keep your chops up, you know? Yeah,

Randy Hulsey  1:18:14

absolutely. And I didn't ever get that elaborate. With the whole production, kind of, you're playing live just about every day, I was more of like, you know, maybe I'll jump on and play 10 songs live and then get off, you know, right. It's kind of the thing is, you know, I'm not making a living playing music like you are. So it was kind of a past sight saying, but I forgot what I was gonna tell you about that. But yeah, I didn't, I didn't set up a monitor up in front. I mean, one of the things that I did do was I used a device that would allow me to go straight from the phone into my mixer, which would cut out all the noise in the in the room, right, you would just get a straight mix to the to the phone, which would you know, your videos great, but then you hear the dogs barking in the background or whatever. And you were able to take that out so

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:19:06

well. Yeah, that's that's what I had to do. I wanted to make sure that it was just a direct feed, and all my effects are on them with my feet and it needed to be right for sure. And I got the green screens to put you know, like what you see behind the make it a little bit interesting because I'm just sitting there playing the guitar. Sure, and, and learning some new songs along the way. But you know, no matter how much you practice the song, it's always different when you play it in front of people whether they're actually sitting in front of you or you're doing it on Facebook Live because you know they're there and I agree

Randy Hulsey  1:19:42

from a you know, we're still kind of on the talking about guitars and the streaming of Facebook Live from a pedal effects, conversation. What's your go to board? Do you have a bunch of effects on a board or is it a pod of some kind that you play? Do I use a HD? I think it's the HD x 500. The line six ac 500. Okay, yeah, that's what I have at home in the studio. So I didn't know what

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:20:11

I did. I use the HD 500. And I put my vocal through it. And I put the guitar through it. Okay. And I split the two paths. And they come out, separately, left and right. And so now they're discrete, and then I can bring them into the computer. And I, I'm using Digital Performer in there to just set up a mix. And I can add a little I might add a little bit of reverb and Digital Performer but that's it. But all the echoes. And the delays all come from the POD HD 500. Interesting. Yeah.

Randy Hulsey  1:20:46

What is on the horizon? For zebra? Post pandemic? Post pandemic? Yeah. Whenever that when right when weight is post? Yeah, that's, that's a great question. But you know, things are starting, I guess I should say things are starting to, I speak for Houston here. You know, we we basically gone back, we're 100% opened up, of course, people are still wearing their mask and things of that nature. But things are trying to get back to some normalcy. But rephrasing the question, I guess I should say, Are there shows that are starting to be booked at venues for zebra for the symphony that you do? Talk to me a little bit about what's coming up for you. Yeah, we

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:21:33

would love to do the symphony show again, sometimes, but there's nothing booked for that. Right now. We are doing two shows near St. Petersburg, Florida. It's in Largo at the Largo Cultural Center, in Largo, Florida, and that's on June 5, and six. Okay. And it's a theater that we played, you know, many times before, but they've taken all the theater seating out, and it's just tables now. So, okay, that's the difference. We'll probably be doing a show here on Long Island at the, at the end of the year, November, December. And, you know, I'm sure between now and June, we'll have something booked down south in New Orleans and some other places too, but I you know, the next I think 60 days are going to really tell a lot, because there's a lot of places that are reopening. Yeah. And we got to kind of see how, you know how it's gonna go? Yeah. I mean, I just read a, an article about Brazil. They're in a crisis right now. They got 6000 people a day dying down their axes. And, you know, they just didn't handle it. Well, at all. Yeah. And it's like getting your feet wet. It's like, you know, as the water hits, it's still too cold, the Gulf and so it's alright, so

Randy Hulsey  1:22:52

I know, you have to play it by ear for sure. I think,

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:22:55

yeah. Everybody's got their own feelings about how safe they feel. And you know, you you've got to feel comfortable. And some of us were comfortable from the beginning. And some of us were a little too comfortable. And maybe some of us were a little too overprotective, too, but everybody's different. And that's just kind of the way it is.

Randy Hulsey  1:23:16

Yeah. Well, my wife Terry has been through the first round of vaccination and I think she's due to get the next one. Next Friday. I haven't had any. My daughter is a nurse actually in the COVID unit for a major hospital system here in in Houston and she actually had COVID I guess, last year sometime it was a mild case thank goodness but yeah, you're right I mean, there's the over protected the the people that don't care the people that care too much. You never know what you're gonna get with people. I think it's just use common sense. You know, protect yourself protect other people without being a knucklehead extremists, kind of like the conversation we were having with hunting, you know, I'm not going out picketing anywhere or anything like that. But right. It's not my belief, either. But I believe everybody that has, you know, everybody has their own beliefs. Where can the listeners find you on social media and on the internet in general?

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:24:14

Well, I've got a bunch of different places and I'm going to tell you where they are. They go to the zebra website, which is www dot the door. Th e d o r.com. That's the zebra website. can go to Facebook facebook.com forward slash Randy Jackson, zebra all one word, Randy Jackson zebra. And then there's another Facebook page. I have that Randy slash Jackson. Flash of flash zebra. Randy Jackson of zebra. So there's two Facebook Places on Twitter. I'm Randy zebra. on YouTube. I'm Randy Jackson of zebra You can find your Randy Jackson zebra on YouTube.

Randy Hulsey  1:25:02

Yeah. And make sure thanks for sharing that with the listeners and you guys would be in for a treat. If you jump out specifically on the Facebook web page. I don't know if you do the live shows at the same time, every day, but it seems like my summer mid afternoon like 230 Houston time or some sometime

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:25:24

around there. pm Eastern time. So you're on a central time.

Randy Hulsey  1:25:29

Yep. Central. Yeah, yeah. So 3pm and listen to some great stuff from Zebra great cover stuff. Randy has I think Venmo and PayPal set up to do some online tipping. So yeah, any of the listeners out there gracious enough to support fellow musicians certainly do that. Randy, I'll hit you with some some fun quickfire questions here. You know, just kind of blurt out a single answer. If you want to expound upon, you know, or elaborate on on one of them. That's fine, too. But we'll we'll go through those and then we'll, we'll wrap up. So how about Beatles or the stones? That's gonna be a dead giveaway. We talked about that earlier. Right.

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:26:12

Yeah, it's got to be the Beatles. I mean, I love the stones, too. But the Beatles, it's got to be

Randy Hulsey  1:26:17

well, the stones certainly played a lot in open G two, and I'm sure you you know, Keith Riggins was a big open open G player, right? How about Van Halen, or Hendrix?

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:26:30

I you know, that they both. Both of them did something unique with the guitar. And so I couldn't, I can't really compare them. They're both like, right at the top.

Randy Hulsey  1:26:42

Yeah. Even from an inspirational, like, certainly, it's apples and oranges. Like you said, but I didn't know if one maybe inspired you more as a guitar player over over the other one.

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:26:55

Well, I mean, you know, when I was growing up, it was Hendrix. And by the time I heard Van Halen zebra was already playing. So I wasn't really listening to Van Halen to learn Van Halen, you know, but you knew that he had done something completely new innovative, you know, which was very rare. So I I couldn't really pick one and that styles are different OSHA very differ. Yeah, so I can't I can't I can't give you a fair answer on fair enough.

Randy Hulsey  1:27:26

And there's no right or wrong answers here. Just kind of kind of something to ponder I guess. How about Yeah, a summer or winter? Yes. Summer or winter guy. Summer. What about TV or radio? TV? acoustic or electric? Acoustic rocker come rolled.

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:27:47

Yeah.

Randy Hulsey  1:27:51

I didn't say that. As long as you said it. That's what whatever man. About rocker country? Rock. Anything country you like? Um, not? Not really not really specifically but or do you listen to country at all? I guess I should rephrase that question a little bit.

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:28:11

I don't really listen to it. I mean, I think what I like about country music, more than anything else is sometimes the lyrics. I like, some of the countries that there's some Yeah, they're crafting. Yeah, crappy lyrics in the in the country music stuff. But there's no you know, for me when I was growing up with rock, I mean, you listen to Hendrix one minute, and all of a sudden you're listening to Yes, the next minute, you know, and there's not there's just not that diversity in country music. I mean, no, there's it's pretty defined, you know, even though it may rock a little more now than it used to back in the day. Yeah. It's not didn't have the variety that that rock had for me.

Randy Hulsey  1:28:54

Well, I was never a country guy. Like I mean, of course, I knew Willie Nelson songs and stuff like that. And, but I was never a connoisseur or, or an end taker of country music. But when I became a solo artist here, and started doing a lot of covers that you know, you try to play everybody's favorite. I figured out real quick, you're gonna have to be a little more diverse than play in everything by the Eagles and the rock stuff because there are some people that love classic country, Red Dirt country so so I I forced myself out of my whatever, vortex that I was in with rock and roll, and force myself to learn a lot of the more popular country stuff and then started listening to the Americana genre. And there's a lot of good writers out there. It's a lot of good stuff. That's kind of where my love, you know, at the end of the day, I'm always a rock guy, but you know, you have to have a little diversity unless you're a band like zebra and people go to For instance, the warehouse live or the warehouse here in Houston, where I saw you last. And they're there to hear zebra songs. They didn't come for zebra to cover country tunes, right? So you don't have to worry about that zebra right? Where as a solo artist like myself, I have to

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:30:16

Yeah, I mean look, you're trying to you know, it's, it's, my situation is certainly different than the person that doesn't have any you know, original material that people are familiar familiar with enough to get away with flying it but you know, even so, as you know, as many zebra fans as there are out there, I do like to do covers, but there's enough you know, of the classic rock stuff for me to do that. I can pretty much do what I like to do, you know, I try to stick to that. You know, I do do Folsom Prison Blues. So somebody asked, Do you there's always somebody who says, you know, any country at all? Yeah.

Randy Hulsey  1:30:56

That's it. We'll do that. That's the epitome of country. Everybody's got to do Folsom Prison Blues. It's almost almost like free bird and Stairway to Heaven. Like you got to do there the staple songs or you know, yeah, I do do what about so that that song in particular? What key? Do you play that in? Can you remember? I'll

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:31:17

play it and see see? Okay, I'm

Randy Hulsey  1:31:19

a G play it in G that's kind of my, my wheelhouse there. The key A G. Okay. I didn't know. I didn't know what key that you were playing it in. But moving along. New York, or Louisiana. Again, apples and oranges. I'm sure.

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:31:35

Not really. You know that. One thing about New York and we got up here. I mean, we could we live in Long Island. You know, we didn't come to Manhattan. I was really surprised at how similar the people were in Long Island. Compared to New Orleans when we got to Manhattan. I did definitely. You know, when we went to New York City, I definitely noticed the difference in the difference in the attitude of the people but I think it just has to come with the amount of people in Manhattan and just that everybody's like on Ken all the time. And you know, yeah, but Long Island is suburbia and big similarity in the people so I mean, there's the thing that is different is the topography here and down south you know, you've got the ocean, the beaches and stuff here which is great during the summertime. New Orleans has the seafood the bayou this got its own atmosphere. I mean, New Orleans is music. Yeah, jazz. Yeah. And I have friends in both places. So you know, I guess if I had to pick one I pick Louisiana simply because I hate the winters

Randy Hulsey  1:32:48

they say the say the winters are fine if you don't have to shovel snow, if you go and visit and then leave, that's the best winter to be in. And I was for work I was I went up to I have a customer up in the Bakken which is my not North Dakota. And I purposely called a charter flight for the company. They have a private flight that flies from Houston straight into my knot. And I purposely booked a January trip to to my not just to say that I experienced the winter for four days. And when I was there, it was negative 41 degrees. And even the polar bears were pissed off living there. It was that it was that cold. And I The crazy thing is the city, the town, you know mine not small, but the town. People were working people were driving around if that was Houston, and it was negative 41. Much like like what you remember from probably from New Orleans, when it gets to 20 degrees the city shuts down because yeah, we don't have the infrastructure to de ice the streets and snow plow and not that we get much snow but people lose their minds here in Houston, as you probably know, but up there, it's like it's another day at negative 41 degrees. So it was It wasn't windy at all. It wasn't windy, but it was it was snowing and it was weird because you're sitting in the hotel room and you keep hearing the emergency notification go off. And you know here in Houston usually that means it's uh, you know, somebody is missing an Amber Alert, right? And but the TV was screaming warnings that say temperatures are so extreme. Don't expose your skin for any longer than five minutes because hypothermia will set in at those temperatures. So that was weird. You know a guy living in Houston going and getting Hey, you're gonna freeze to death if you go outside for five minutes. It was really it was weird, but I lived through it. I experienced it but the whole getting up at five o'clock in the morning just to shovel snow to drive to work. Now no thanks. Yeah. I'll let you guys have that that have to deal with the snow everyday thing early, early bird or night owl.

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:35:07

Lately early. Okay, yeah, I mean, I used to be a night owl. And, you know, since the COVID thing I've been getting up early in the morning and, and going to sleep early. Yeah.

Randy Hulsey  1:35:17

I think that I like that too. And my, my good buddy, Paul Hartwell, who I interviewed first on my show, he's the same way the guy's up at four in the morning, five in the morning. And I think because I work for a living in corporate America. I mean, I'm trained to be like that. So I don't really live the musician hours where you're up till four in the morning or five and then sleep till lunchtime. So I feel more productive in the mornings myself. Favorite place to play. We're thinking about all of the places that you've played over time. Is there one that sticks out in your mind? That was? Man, I just love that place. And maybe you've played it many times. Just one stick out.

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:35:59

I know. We had a lot of great gigs at Old Man rivers in Avenue. And Avondale. Yeah, right outside of New Orleans. And, and up in here in New York. It was a place we used to play called speaks in Island Park. Our manager, one of our managers own speaks, it was just a great club. It was a rock. It was a rock club with a lot of history. So you know, I would say those two places, you know, we had, I had probably some of the best time. Yeah.

Randy Hulsey  1:36:31

Do you remember playing partners in St. Maarten Ville? Yeah, yeah, sure. Okay. Yeah.

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:36:38

It was flex at one time, right? Yeah. That was a great. That was always a great game. Oh, yeah.

Randy Hulsey  1:36:42

Yeah. And what about Lafayette? Do you remember any shows that you played over in Lafayette? Did you guys ever play at a place called the keg or anything like that?

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:36:50

I think we might have played the keg once. But grant st was the place we played a lot in Lafayette, you know? But I think my favorite Lafayette gig has to be the gig we did with the Acadiana symphony. Okay, at the auditorium there, you know,

Randy Hulsey  1:37:07

was that the black Colosseum or something different? Or do you remember?

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:37:12

I should remember. I don't know. It's,

Randy Hulsey  1:37:14

it's probably in material. I mean, I was just curious if it if that sounded familiar.

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:37:18

It wasn't too long ago. It was okay. 2019 I got you. I should know. But yeah, it was like a it's like a 2500 seat. Theater. Yeah.

Randy Hulsey  1:37:28

Yep. Favorite song to play live by zebra. This is where we edit the gaps out right.

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:37:39

Yeah, so it just comes right out my favorite song to play live by zebra. Let's say the La La song. Yeah, you know, we always do the drum solo and and I get to take a break.

Randy Hulsey  1:37:51

Make guy work a little bit.

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:37:55

I play the drums a little bit from the side. Yeah,

Randy Hulsey  1:37:57

that's awesome. Just make everybody else work while you're on break. What about what about favorite song to play live by the Beatles?

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:38:07

I'm gonna say day in the life. Yeah.

Randy Hulsey  1:38:10

I thought that that's what you're gonna say that's a great song. What about my, so I'm thinking about, you know, the, the symphonies that you do and whatnot. So I'm thinking about those bands and songs that you may cover. What about my Led Zeppelin?

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:38:24

Since I've been loving you,

Randy Hulsey  1:38:26

Okay, what about a second one? You got a second one? Was there a way to heaven? Yeah. Yeah, I was thinking maybe you would say the rain song. But

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:38:35

well, I love the rain song. Yeah. And that, definitely, that probably is number three, you know, but as far as the symphony shows go, okay. You know, that when you mentioned the symphony, the sense of in loving, you get just gives me a, you know, a chance to really stretch. And because I'm not playing guitar, I can just totally focus on singing. And so I enjoy that, you know, a lot when I'm doing a symphony show,

Randy Hulsey  1:39:03

do you find and this is kind of off the quick fire questions, totally off the subject. But do you find that you're a more powerful or maybe a better sing or whatever word you want to use when you don't have the guitar in your hands?

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:39:17

I think there's got to be I've got to be a little better. You know, I mean, maybe people would notice it, you know, but you would think, you know, with me? Yeah, being totally focused on one thing as opposed to two things. Absolutely. It's just I just think that, you know, it's just natural that, you know, one's going to be better than the other

Randy Hulsey  1:39:37

well, and I think that people would think that there's a proficiency there. Like I was a hockey player for many years, and there's a prerequisite to play in hockey. And that's called skating. So when you're, when you're moving the puck, and you're thinking of all these things, you can't think of what your feet are doing. That's a second nature to you. Yeah, it's like you as a vocalist and a guitarist if you kind of use analogy. They think that all Randy Jackson's a phenomenal guitar player, surely he doesn't even think about playing the guitar will. In fact you do. I mean, you've done it so many times, but they wouldn't think it would be a hindrance to you at all right. But you do have to put some thought into it.

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:40:17

Yeah, I mean, I was playing yesterday, and I was playing help by the Beatles. And played the song 1000s of times, you know, and I couldn't for the life of me remember the risk deter, deter, deter, deter, deter, deter, deter, deter, do, you know, I just stopped, I just stopped because I could, I could have faked my way through, you know, these are very informal gigs on online, and I just stopped. And I was just like, man, you know, here I am. You know, if I only had to sing it, it would have been you playing that guitar? And you look, you know, you have brain farts? You know, the one the one thing that I really liked to have, just like you said, on the back of your hand is the lyrics, you know, to have to try to remember what the lyrics are. You're not performing anymore, that the songs controlling you at that point, the more you've got that, just like you said, that you don't even have to think about if you're in that zone, and that's good, you know, but when you start to forget little things like lyric. Yeah, it's no good.

Randy Hulsey  1:41:23

Yeah, no, I hear you. That brings up an interesting point. And I kind of wanted to get your take on it, because I have kind of mixed emotions. about this. So there is a program on the iPad that I use, and I think a lot of players, especially solo artists have gravitated to. And it's called on song O N, S, O N G. Are you familiar with them? Have you? Have you heard of it before?

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:41:52

No, I mean, I know a lot of people use their iPads. Yeah.

Randy Hulsey  1:41:56

So So it's basically if you put in a lot of effort, you basically go out, you pull the music off, you know, ultimate guitar, calm, bring the chords down the lyrics, if you're OCD like I am, you spend a lot of time perfecting everything, and then it has a teleprompter feature that you can time the song. So as you're playing live, if you can't remember lyrics, you never get stuck. You never forget the lyrics, you never forget the chords, right? Good thing, it's a good thing. But I also feel like it's a hindrance to like, you become way too reliant on that, I know, when you go out and play zebra songs, you don't have music in front of you, because you played them 75,000 times. Whereas when you're a solo artist, you're asked to play so many different things. And sometimes you get request. And so I didn't know if you felt like something like that would be a hindrance in a Facebook Live show where you never had a hiccup like you did and help. And there was always that aid there. But it becomes a crutch to I believe where you where you rely on that in its, you don't exercise your brain to memorize the songs like we did 10 years ago, or 15 years ago, before all these wonderful tools came out that that are aids to us as musicians.

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:43:20

I mean, I do you know, if there's a song that somebody has asked for that, you know, I haven't played before, and I don't think I'll be playing it much, you know, that it'll maybe be a one off or a couple of times, you know, I'll get a lyric and put it in front of me and read and just get through the song. But yeah, I could see a situation where is that if you were doing that all the time, and you had it where all you had to do is just hit a button or just say a certain word and the lyrics come up, and then it's gonna start and scroll for you, that you become dependent on that. Yeah. And, you know, it's just one more thing you've got to do now, you know, now you're doing three things, you know, singing, you're reading and you're playing.

Randy Hulsey  1:44:02

Oh, and don't forget the pedals. You know, you got to work the pedal. So that's what you got to work. Gotta work. I felt kind of bad about the whole on song sang until I recently, but wasn't recently it was probably a couple years ago, I went and saw Cheap Trick. And Aerosmith here at Toyota Center in Houston. And I got to look at and I'm like, wait a minute. Steven Tyler has teleprompters on stage with his lyrics and I'm like, Okay, now I don't feel bad at all. This guy's been he wrote these songs. They're all mega hits. And he's been singing for 40 years but he's

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:44:39

not reading it. You know, he's using it as a P forget an aid he will go and look at it, right? He's not looking at that thing. You're, you know, you know, it's there. You know, somebody you know, I was talking to somebody else they said, you know, you can forget the simplest thing in the middle of Any kind of show whether it's a big audience or a small audience, because how would you like to be littered scattered? And just forget the opening line to Freebirds? You know? Yeah, no, you don't want that, you know? So it's up there. You know, if you right there and you're one feet away, yeah, you want it there.

Randy Hulsey  1:45:17

And that's kind of the way I treat the on song. I don't read it. I glance at it from time to time to make sure that I'm staying on track. So it's, it's a cheat more than it is a a total crutch. But anyway, back to How about how about Pink Floyd? There a song by Pink Floyd that sticks out Symphony Symphony wise, that might be your favorite to play live?

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:45:40

Us in them?

Randy Hulsey  1:45:42

Okay. That's a great one. What about what about us really love that song? Yeah. What about the doors?

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:45:50

Five to one. It's just so raw.

Randy Hulsey  1:45:54

I love that. That's a great song.

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:45:56

It's yeah, it's just it's everything that Jim Morrison was all about, you know, and, and more it was like, he just, it's just so outrageous, you know, crazy. Yeah.

Randy Hulsey  1:46:09

Formal training, or play by ear.

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:46:15

A little bit of formal training, but mainly by ear. A lot of hours in front of the record player, you

Randy Hulsey  1:46:22

know, yeah. Well, back in the day, before, you know, you had tablature, and all these great tools on the internet. You literally put in us a cassette tape or a CD, and hit the rewind button, play, rewind, play, rewind, play until it was instilled in your brain, and you could hum it, and then you go when you try to find it. Right. That's how we learn songs back. You know, back in the dinosaur days,

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:46:50

it was it was quicker with the needle, I can tell you that. You could just flip that needle. Yeah. I could almost put it right on the point that I wanted to, you know, getting good at it. Yep.

Randy Hulsey  1:47:02

Number one influential musician or band? Like who did it for you? Like, I know, the Beatles were big. But what about just an individual musician? Was there one? That was it for you?

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:47:20

I mean, I guess I'd have to say, Jimmy Page. If I had to pick one. Then you get you know, you go back to the Beatles, you know, and you in you listen to all those songs. You know, there's so many great freakin songs that they wrote, you know, that? Is the guitar playing? Or is it the singing? Or is it the melodies? And so I you know, I, I can just tell you that, you know, I guess, between the Beatles and The Zeplin and the Moody Blues? And yes, you know, those were my biggest, you know, inspirations. But yeah, you know,

Randy Hulsey  1:47:56

would you say that rush was an inspiration, because you guys have always been kind of synonymous with, you know, maybe it's synonymous because you're a three piece band. You know, Rush was a three piece band, but I know that you guys have probably, or you have done covers by, by rush in the past, right? I mean, would you call them an influential band to you? Or were they just kind of more? Oh, they were a great man, one of my favorites, but I wouldn't say they're influential.

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:48:22

Well, when we got we didn't get to get we got together as a three piece band without a I didn't even know about rush when we were, you know, I wouldn't say that they were a big influence on the music. We started learning rush songs because the crowd you know, our audience was asking us to rush right. And they have great music and everything. But, you know, that was past the point. When I was a teenager, you know, I was already playing music myself. And wasn't real out me. We we would learn it for for our fans and stuff. And I've seen Russia live probably like five six times really great fan. Oh, yeah. But no, they weren't one of the one that I think rush probably influenced Dream Theater more than you know, people give them credit for you know, they weren't they were a big rush fan.

Randy Hulsey  1:49:15

Yeah. And I know you you're heavily influence Led Zeppelin. Guy. Have you? Have you heard of the band out of? I think they're some kids out of Detroit area, Detroit, Michigan called Greta Van Fleet. Have you heard of Oh, sure.

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:49:31

Yeah. Yeah. Great. So Jason Flom that I told you about? Yeah. Jason, the guy that was the a&r guy just signed us. He signed them. Oh,

Randy Hulsey  1:49:42

wow. Interesting that he'd sign you guys and yeah, yeah, I enjoyed their music. You know, I think they're great. Yeah, for sure. And then the last one that I have for you is what advice would you give a young up and coming guitar player specifically, because I have a lot of people that come to me and I'm, I'm a mediocre guitarist at best. And I play well enough and sing well enough to play live shows. And so I have somewhat of a gift. But I think a lot of people will come to me and say, hey, help me find a guitar. And then next thing, you know, they've quit, like, what would you tell a beginning guitarist that really wanted to play? Is there any advice that you would give them,

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:50:28

they got to practice, you know, and they got to practice on their own. And the lessons that they take are just to help them a little bit along the way. But you got to practice you got to practice every day. And if you really want to be serious about it, you know, and make it try to make a living at it. You need to practice like, six, seven hours a day, you know, you got you got to live with your guitar, and learn, you know, I would say learn how to read. You know, I wish that's one thing I wish I would have done early on was learn how to sight read guitar, because there's a lot of opportunities for studio work, you know, for people that can read. But you know, it's really the hours you put into it. It's not the years, it's the hours, you can learn to be a great guitar player and in months. Yeah, practice on.

Randy Hulsey  1:51:18

Yeah, I agree with that. And I always tell the, the new players that you have to at least get by the catalysing of the fingers part. If you don't ever get to that point or past that point, you're never going to play because a lot of people feel that they don't like it. The blisters, the bleeding, and they're I'm done. I'm checking out it's not worth it. So man

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:51:44

after my third surgery, I almost quit. Yeah.

Randy Hulsey  1:51:48

Yeah. And it's so funny that they're I'm on a Taylor guitars, players group on Facebook. And it's so funny that somebody will post at the oddest time they'll post a picture of their calluses. And then about 10 minutes later, you look at that thread. And there's like 50 people that have posted pictures or calluses on there. And everybody is so proud of those calluses, and my dad always tells me, man, why don't you get an emery board and file those things down a little bit. And I'm like, oh, that it took like 30 years to get these things. You don't want to file them down? What do you know? What do you what do you say? Yeah, so yeah, that's

Randy Jackson - Zebra  1:52:37

it's definitely you know, in the beginning, it's it's tough. And it's really frustrating when you when you've got all this pain, and you still can't play it out. But yeah, but the calluses do come and you just have to keep keep at it and, and give it some time, you know? Yep. Don't kill yourself over it. But don't give up because of that. Because once you get the calluses going, you never feel never feel it again until unless you stop playing for a

Randy Hulsey  1:53:02

while. That's That's exactly right. So great advice by by Randy Jackson here. Randy, thanks so much for joining me and I you know, I want to wish you and zebra continued success. I'm going to look at picking up a 40 port 12. And if and when your Yep, if and when you're ever in Houston, maybe I can find you and you can sign this and I can put it in my studio. So no prob you would be so kind as to do that. You know, again, I wish you guys all the success when things open back up and get going. I ask the listeners to like, share and subscribe to the podcast make sure that you check out Randy social media sites follow him check out the Facebook Lives certainly be generous with the tipping if you guys can afford to do so that's always very much appreciated. And as always, you can find the show on Facebook at backstage pass radio podcast on Instagram at backstage pass radio, on Twitter at backstage pass PC. And the website is backstage pass. radio.com Thank you again for joining me, Randy. And you guys make sure that you take care of yourselves and each other and I'll see you guys right back here on the next episode of backstage pass radio.

Adam Gordon  1:54:27

Thanks so much for joining us. We hope you enjoy today's episode of backstage pass radio. Make sure to follow Randy on Facebook and Instagram at Randy Hulsey music and on Twitter at our Halsey music. Also make sure to like, subscribe and turn on alerts for upcoming podcasts. If you enjoyed the podcast, make sure to share the link with a friend and tell them backstage pass radio is the best show on the web for everything music. We'll see you next time right here on backstage pass radio