Kent Newman Master

Wed, 12/29 1:50PM • 1:20:58

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

band, play, people, song, music, musician, guitar, weird, les paul, big, hear, day, good, country, album, learn, sing, diamond, kid, talking, Rat Ranch, Diamond Jack, Mr. Wonderful, Podcast, Backstage Pass Radio, Backstage Pass Radio Podcast, Randy Hulsey, Randy Hulsey Music, Randy Hulsey Podcast

SPEAKERS

Randy Hulsey, Kent Newman, Adam Gordon

Randy Hulsey  00:00

I want to take some time to welcome you guys to today's episode. I have a very special guest today who has been in the local music scene for many, many years. He's a very looked up to guitarist and he has been a member of some of the most followed bands in the Houston and surrounding areas over the years. And he was a founder of one of the most successful cover bands in the Houston area. Over the past 30 years or so. We will visit with the Master of the fretboard and my friend Kent Newman right after this.

Adam Gordon  00:31

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  01:00

Jen, good afternoon. Welcome to the crystal vision studios. I'm glad you came out today all the way from Sugar Land, Richmond, Richmond area, a land of sugar. Right, right on and you're playing up in The Woodlands this evening, just doing a duet with Stacy Steele a one and only the one and only him. There is no other areas. And I Stacy will be on the show here soon. I don't I don't think we have a date. Actually, we do have a date lined out at the end of end of April. And I told him maybe we'll try to play a song and we'll call in and Heckle. Always got to have one heckler.

Kent Newman  01:34

Let me get this straight. Mr. Steele. That is your real name. So let's get his real name. That is about cool. Is that

Randy Hulsey  01:42

that is cool. He was born with a stage name. I wouldn't bless. So, so tell the listeners real quick, a little bit about Kent Newman, the kid growing up? Where did you grow up in Victoria, Texas, down south.

Kent Newman  02:00

Yeah. And born there. My book came from my dad was born there. So you're talking about homegrown lived there. He lived there all his life. And now it was a good place to grow up and a good place to live when you were like when I was getting into music, because it's like two hours from every city. Yep, corpus. And then when we actually started our band, it was a great place to be because we could, you know, was just as much trouble to go to Corpus. And it was really weird, too. Because we we realized that there was this kind of strange. I don't know what you would call it, like misconception about every town being corpus, if you will. Well, you can't go to Austin unless you do. Then you go to Austin, they go and they all had these weird. It made me realize the world was a bigger place than I thought it was even in that small area. Yes. You know, because it wasn't it was you had to go find out on your on your own. And then what was really cool is you kind of learn from each place. So you were different kind of everywhere you play. Yeah, in a way I agree. makes any sense. It does.

Randy Hulsey  02:59

It does. And what about what about siblings? I have a brother, sister Sister,

Kent Newman  03:03

she nobody was really into music. I was the first person that was really into music. My dad, my dad was awesome, though, because he was into sports. And he got tried to get me in everything. And I didn't like it. I hate it at all. But the minute I picked up a guitar and didn't put it down, he had enough snap to go. Okay, that's what we're gonna do. Sure. You know, there was a point where I'd played so much that my dad literally, like I was in high school. I know, I think I was I wasn't even in high school yet. And he said, Okay, what's the best guitar they make? We're gonna go you know, cuz he didn't know. Of course, back then I didn't even I didn't know. So I said, Les Paul, you know, so we went to straight music in Austin and bought a Les Paul Custom, which I wish I still had. But the point was, he had enough I was very, very supportive, like immediately, okay, they I got out of music for a while I did some other stuff, and got married and did a lot of the wrong things. But as far as I say, a lot of the wrong things. Everything was right. But I'm just saying I did to be in career music. But then I got back into it. And he was supportive. Even when I wanted to get back into it. I had gotten out of it. And he was I was kind of lost. And he was kind of the one that said, you know, what, if you could do anything, what would you do? And I was like a couple of buddies of mine that we started right ranch with. They were bugging me. And I've just basically told him no, because I don't know. I was like 20. I was in my late 20s. And I just thought it was even then it was. Yeah, that's a young man's game.

Randy Hulsey  04:30

Did he or did the parents push you as a kid because I know my growing up. I wanted to play and I wanted to practice and I wanted to do all those things. Of course I started on the piano wasn't the guitar. But were you forced kind of do you've ever felt like you were kind of pushed into it? Or is it just because you like took a liking to it and that was your draw?

Kent Newman  04:49

I was never forced to do it. Probably. I mean, my parents were fan but my mom's still alive. My parents were fantastic. Everybody just kind of let me find my own way. Yeah, you know, but they were super proud. My dad was as big a fan as there could be. Because to him music not being musical, it was like, magic, you know, or like, or like, Sure, yes, he thought it was some. But he also understood how hard I worked at it with which that was. That's something like now I give lessons to some young people in amo and, and I hear them going through the same thing I kind of did. Like, they spent a lot of time doing it. And then somebody will say to them, Oh, my God, your head. I'll give you a specific story. I had this one boy. And he's like, 15, and he was getting really good. And it was a holidays. And I say, Hey, how was your holidays? And he was talking about his aunt. He played guitar for his aunt. And she's like, Oh, my God, you're lucky. You're so talented. And he's like, it kind of pissed me off. Yes. And I know what he means. Because it's like, people just think you just can do it. You know, like, Oh, you're so lucky. You can You're lucky you're and people that you even know that should know that. Watch you do it. I mean, like, I love my sister to death. But she watched me practice. You know, when I was I mean, she was probably the first paying gig was my sister offer me money to stop playing a song like never play Cat Scratch Fever again, right? No, that was my first gig was to not place it. But my point is she watched it happen. You know, she knew how much I sacrifice it. Later we year ago. She's like, Oh, you're lucky. And I'm like, lucky you were there. You saw all the countless

Randy Hulsey  06:23

hours and whatnot in. And I think there are people that are born with some some musical prowess. I don't know how easy it comes to, to, I think you got to work to be good at anything. Whether you're a roofer, or a truck driver or whatever, you don't back an 18 Wheeler up the first time you climb in the cab. I mean, you have to practice it.

Kent Newman  06:44

And I don't know that it's any different. I've only really given lessons for the past, like four years or so. And I would never I always hate it when people say, Well, these kids today or, you know, or this generation or whatever. But it is interesting to me. Like I get a lot of people. I guess my oldest students are like my age, but I have some that I've been every age 30s 40s 20s kids. And it's it's hard to play guitar. It's hard to sing. It doesn't come naturally to everybody. And sometimes you'll be teaching somebody something like, Well, I can't do that. And you're like, Well, why would you be able to do it? Yes, you can't. That's a That's a weird attitude of like, Oh, I just can't do that. Yeah, well, Neither could I Yes. And so I think I probably had some musical aptitude or whatever. You want to call it some talent. But yeah, man, I had to work hard. And also, when I was like, when I very first got into music, I thought I wanted to be a singer. And yeah, that's what I want to do want to sing. And then I picked up a guitar and I loved it so much that Well what happened was, I would usually be a probably a, not necessarily a better guitar player than I was a singer at the time. I was just better than like, whoever the other dude was. Yes. So they'd be like, Oh, well, then you're gonna be our lead guitar player. And I kind of was, so you got it by default. And I love guitar. Don't get me wrong, and I still do. I mean, I, it's everything to me. I've spend all my time messing around with guitars and playing guitar. I love it. It's my first instrument. And everything I have really probably came from those abilities. But I mean, I sing a lot and and I had to sing right away. And, and I'm not I don't ever call myself a singer, but it was back then. And this is one of those things you and I talked about this. I'm an old man. So whenever you kind of talk about the past it, you can't talk about it without trying to point out how different things were. And when I was that age, and like this is like the late 70s and 80s. There weren't a lot of people who didn't sing. You don't I'm saying like most people, most guys that picked them a nice instrument, or singing it was kind of the point of being in but you didn't have a guy if there was a guy that didn't sing. He better be a badass if you if you had a bass player that didn't sing that dude better make people cry with his bass player, because it's like, no, we need you. We're not talking about a big you know, background singers. We because I was in Dancehall bands. Initially, when I was like 1516 years old. And dance all bands back in the day were big, because there was no sequencing. There was even synthesizers weren't as big a deal back then. So you had to have actual real horns. Yes. So we had a horn section. It was emotions still around. But back then it was like a nine piece band. Yes. So everybody's saying yeah, I mean, there was no even the guy that if you we had a guy that played trumpet, and we made him sing, and he ended up being like one of the lead singers because he just got good at you know, so you had to say, Yeah,

Randy Hulsey  09:38

who were some of the maybe the teen years think to the teen years. What were some of the bands that were really pulling you in and you're like, Man, if I could be like those guys, like I think we all were influenced by certain bands, and I'm assuming they were probably 70s bands because probably close to the same age. But you know, I didn't know There's one or two that stuck out in your mind that man these guys really shaped how and what I did with music later on

Kent Newman  10:06

I can be kind of specific because our arm again, it's hard to relate the way things are now this is before MTV. You know, you didn't even know what musicians look like unless you went and saw him or her I'm on your, you know, on their albums. But I remember seeing journey on ours already kind of playing guitar. I had a guitar. And I remember seeing journey and it was soundstage. You can see it on YouTube. It was 1978 and Neil Sean is Neil Sean. I mean, he was Neil Sean's, and he was no show. I mean, he's just a monster when he was 16. He was when he played with Santana. And there was something about him standing there and making those sounds and playing I guess what you would say is like the lead guitar where I was like, I want to do that. Yeah, that's, I want to be like that guy. But really the other one this is a really weird one. But you know, I think the thing that actually made a bigger impression on me in the long term was there was a band in Austin called too smooth, and they ended up being 14k and the guitar player His name is Brian Wooten, and now he plays with Oh my god. On my sister's gonna kill me it's her favorite artists. Country guy. Casting anyway, Brian Wooten plays for Yeah, look him up. The guy that did the Yeah, can't believe this. This is how old I am. This is a demonstrating my age. This is the edit out pardon. Big old guy. Who is it? What is that guy? He did the honky tonk. But donkey donkey.

Randy Hulsey  11:42

Well, it says he he co wrote with Petra.

Kent Newman  11:46

Yeah, he was in a music group light heart. He was in why heart? Yeah, but anyway, at the time, Hang on. Let me find this guy. You'll win. It's a big deal. But it's a trace Adkins. So try. Okay. Anyway, Brian Wooten plays with trace Adkins now, but back in the day, he played in a band called to smooth it was a cover band. And they would come to this little place called sunvalley in Victoria. And they were playing all covers, they were playing like zipline and all the whatever was Iraq songs at the time. And they would be, and I and I remember seeing him and of course, I could stand right next to him. It was a completely different than seeing Neil, Shawn on television. I was right there. And I was hearing the sounds and I was watching him. And he was so happy. And having the best time. And I saw him with a lot of people. And I saw him when there was like, 10 people there. And it was always the same. And that's when I actually said, I want to do that. Yeah, I want to be not I'm not saying I want to play in front of 10 people, I was just the joy and what he was doing is a it was radiating mastery of an instrument. Everything that he was doing was I could I'm like, That's what I want to do. Yeah. And I would always be drawn towards bands like that. And 14k You know, they were another one of those bands like everybody's saying in the band. Chris Skiles still plays in Austin. He was our drummer. Yeah, he's fantastic singer, you know, and so it was just that kind of layout of all everybody sings everybody's a part of it. There was no weak link.

Randy Hulsey  13:15

It's funny that you do mention that because I can remember so many bands that I love. I can think of your remember hot child in the city by Nick elder. And you never know what he looked like until until probably like, 15 years ago. And I'm like, Wait, that's not a chick that was singing. Like, I mean, you you didn't know the song. How long by ACE. Right? Yeah. And what are these guys look like? Right?

Kent Newman  13:39

And also you had the thing of the whole joke of like, they had a face for radio. But you had you know, people that just, I mean, it sounds terrible. But you know, they they didn't have any visual appeal, but they were so talented. It didn't matter back in the 30s. Exactly. So yeah, you there were probably some people that were like, like, I've read articles by Christopher cross, you know, if he was he remembered that you won a Grammy he was it, ma'am. Yeah, whatever year that was that was in San Antonio boy. And he always talks about how he just It was right before the visual era. And he just isn't a I mean, he's just a dude. He's a good looking guys a normal looking guys are like he's got to pump your fingers around of his head. But he I mean, and these are his words. I'm not saying but he said he was just a little. That was just that era. And then you had that magical weird time where it all worked. You know, like a YouTube you know, they're good looking people. The police Duran Duran, I mean, you can say what you want about Duran Duran, but those guys took their muse that was they were serious about that. Oh, yeah, you know, so it all worked kind of work together. But that was when the visual, you know, again, though, that's what you're saying. Like when we grew up? It was not the visual part of it was something but it wasn't all you. Now you can almost kind of almost always think about that. For sure. You almost can't separate it at all. That's right. You know, and you'd always hear about remember I'll give a great example. We went and saw the cars. This was like the Candido album came out. And we love the cars. And these are like all my musician buddies who you would, who just saw, they're great. So we go see him in Austin. And we had no idea. They were like a chick band. Like they were like, like Benjamin or was like, the most beautiful creature I'd ever seen. And these women are just, and we're like, we didn't know at all, we're like, Well, really, this is that they have that appeal. We didn't even think about that, you know? So, and we, it wasn't that we were disappointed, but we're just like, okay, you know, I guess Yeah. Right. But it but it's, it's true. I mean, it's just in everybody makes it's about I don't know performance or it's about sincerity. You know, you look at like a guy like Rick Springfield that you think of as being more about image than music, right, man, then nobody's more serious about music than Rick Springfield, you know, he's, he lives and dies, songwriting. You know, he just absolutely pretty man, and he's a rock star. If you ever go see Rick Springfield live, even if you're not a fan, but it's on a great show. God, you're like, that's what that guy should be? Well, I

Randy Hulsey  16:02

think the media has taken it. I mean, you look at American Idol and the voice, you know, there's some fantastic singers that are, like you said, have a face for radio, right? But when I think when these people are signing talent, you have to have the appeal to I think that's part of it as part of the marketing of the music. And here's the crazy thing is I see a lot of the artists that I follow on Instagram, specifically, and some of the female artists, every picture you see on post on Instagram is almost like it's like a glamour shot. Right? And how about How about singing a song or you're a musician? You know, you're so and so music? How about singing a song and showing us your talent? I don't. Yeah, you're, you're beautiful and everything. But it's like that has preceded the whole talent thing. Like, I'm beautiful. But oh, I play a little guitar, too. And it's tricky.

Kent Newman  16:55

I mean, it's again, I don't I don't know. I mean, everything's just different, you know, music in general, consumed so differently than it used to be. Yes. Yeah, that was it. That's the thing that I think being older that I just would never pretend to be some kind of historian like, I kept track of it. But I've seen it. I actually have played music since there was nothing like that. I mean, I remember the first time I saw a four track recorder, yeah, you know, right up until now, exactly. Create an album with no one. So I've seen I've been in I've lived in an interesting, transitional time and have kind of done it the whole time. A lot of people will either adapt or die and or just quit doing it because it's not the way they want to do it. So they say I don't want to do it anymore. Yeah, or, or some people adapt. They don't really get good at it until they adapt. Like I don't know how to say this. But like, I have friends that were not better like in production. Now. In short, they really kept up with the technology. And now they have jobs and they're doing stuff but they might not have had the best year they just knew exactly how to run the machine the best you know, and some guys didn't Yeah, talk real quick

Randy Hulsey  18:01

to the listeners about bands that were pre wrap ranch. What what was Kent doing pre pre write ranch and I know you are with what ranch a long time. But

Kent Newman  18:11

really what happened was was every I think everybody has a weird, they think their stories weird, but I played in the emotions, which was a fantastic group when you're like 15 and 16. Because those guys were all like 20. I'd been in like, high school band. And when I and the way, the way that's relevant. I mean, like, I'd been in groups of people trying to create music. I've been in jazz band and stuff like that. So the first real band I was in was a bunch of big country boys from Shire, telling me no, do don't do that. Yeah. And I think when you're 15 or 16, that's what you need. You need somebody kind of telling you, no, man, don't. You know, it's like the old a lot of my most respected musicians I've ever played with kind of said the same thing. And when I say respect that, I mean, guys that were way more talented than me, and has a lot more accomplished. And they, they would all a few of them have said to me my one of my best my best friend David Simpson, when we grew up playing together, and he played piano and, and I play guitar and I learned a lot. I learn every pretty much everything I knew about music. Up until we were going together. I learned from David, you know, and, or just from having to communicate with him, but he was a great musician. He could play anything. But he would say something like, No, it's not can you play it? Should You Play? Yes. And I think I learned not that I always know what to play. I would never pretend that I ever learned that lesson. But I just was all I was from a very early age like the first bands our was in our in I was in they were those guys were, you know, they were they didn't let you just do whatever you want it. Yeah. And I think you kind of need that when you are. I say maybe not everybody, but I'd already kind of jammed I'd already kind of gotten that out of my system that you know, just doing I'm gonna just do what I want to do. Right. Even at a very early age. I kind of had gotten past that. Yes. And I kind of I immediately had was already thinking in that one guy Something awesome or like when you're talking about like the voice or American Idol, you see one person doing something in the they've spent a million hours and they're really, really good at it. And it's impressive. There's no doubt about it. But I was always more impressed, you know, by everyone doing, you know, like a band like us, because it's rarer. It's to this day, it's rare. Yeah. You know, you go see a band. And, you know, I've said this, and I don't know, I'm probably not the first person to say, but, you know, five guys all playing the same song isn't? That's doesn't mean it's a band. Yeah, yeah. And, like, even when I was in reference for 30 years, I like we'd all be on the same page. And just, it just couldn't have been better. For guys, or even five guys. And then a month later, it was just horrible. Yeah. It's not even a lot of it's just timing, you know, and people's attitudes at the time. But so before I arranged there really well, I kind of had quit, you know, I really wasn't doing it at all. And then when that started back up, the philosophy was, this is I don't know if this is a good one or not, but was no plan B, you know, like these, I already had a job and I was doing something. So the guys that wanted to start this band, were doing anything. So I was like, Okay, guys, I'm going to quit what I'm doing, I'm gonna quit working with my dad, I'm going to give all this up that I know is money in my bank account to do this. So everyone's got to do it for a living. At least we'll have that in common. Yeah, you know, that even if we don't all agree on everything, we at least I'll have to make a living doing this. On some common ground. No, Plan B, if you have a plan B, go do Plan B. Yeah. And in my life, and that was probably one of the advantages to getting into it. I wasn't a kid at that point. Me I was a kid, but I was in my late 20s. So I kind of approached it a little differently. I didn't. It was like, it's not gonna fail. It's just not Yeah, you know, I mean, I I've done things long enough and done enough research and gone and seen other bands go, Okay, I know, kinda know what I need, what works and what doesn't work. And the one thing I learned or not that I learned, but I noticed right away was, you can't create something that's not there. And what I mean by that, like, like you had your forte, especially when it's a small band, like four guys or five guys, they're going to do what they do. And they're going to all have strengths and weaknesses. You gotta play to those. Yeah. You can't hire like if your keyboard player leaves, you can't fill that guy's roles. Exactly like it was. So it's correct. So we would always adapt. Like, every time we would lose a member or change. It would you know, what does that guy do? You know exactly. Now what he does, and whatever he does good. That's what we're gonna do.

Randy Hulsey  22:36

Yeah, well, rat rat ranch formed, I think back in 89. Yep. Is that correct? And what did the original lineup look like for robbery?

Kent Newman  22:47

It was drums, bass, guitar and keyboards. And everybody's saying For guys, you know, like I said, we were in Victoria. So we would travel, you know, we get a gig in Corpus or we gig in Austin. So we had a lot of places to choose from. Yeah. And it was a different and again, I'll say this a lot. It was just things were just different than you know, like, there were probably more full time. I want to say full time bands, or were probably there were more bands back then, without a doubt, because more people just went out to see bands. Like you could go up and down. You know, on Sixth Street in Austin. You know, there was 1000s of people out every night of the week, not just the weekends. I mean, you Friday and Saturday, Sunday at Maggie Mays, and there'd be 400 people. Yeah, no. So there was a mechanism to keep those bands working.

Randy Hulsey  23:33

Yep. You know, how would you say that the setlist the song choices changed when? I think the original singer was Mark is that

Kent Newman  23:42

number it was, it was me and Malcolm, our original Well, it was the three of us was pretty even. Okay. And when Mark Russell joined, that was a fifth guy. Okay. And he and he became more of a lead singer, just because we kind of felt like he was, uh, he played guitar, too. But we kind of had felt like we needed that, like, we needed a more of a focus and just somebody to sing lead. Yeah, that's kind of the way it happened. But really with Mark, personally, I mean, I wanted mark in the band, because he was just so serious about it. Yeah. I mean, he was as serious and he still is, he's just one of those guys that I knew that. You know, I don't know, when bands are tricky. I mean, they're like any other relationship. They're they're very, very complicated. But I've always felt like if you had at least have two guys, they're really really on the same page. Yeah, you can get you can drive

Randy Hulsey  24:30

the kid get a good drive the ship that way? Well, I was just curious, like, because I remember when Mark was with the band, I if my memory serves me correctly, there was quite a bit of things like sticks. And I remember rush Yeah. And and then he left and it went for peace, I think. Yeah. And then some of those songs fell out and I'm assuming you I mean, of course, you have to adapt to what the the lead vocalist is capable of singing, right? They can't pull off every art I think a lot of

Kent Newman  25:00

it was just in that particular case, we were doing, we were doing originals into so we were thinking in along those lines, but also, you know, everything kind of runs its course. And like, it sounds funny, but there was a time and i Whenever Mark was in the band, when that kind of music like now I have abandoned some 70s Rock, man, that's all we plays, that kind of stuff. But at the time, you know, there weren't a lot of bands that did that. And that's kind of what we wanted. We thought, you know what we this, like some of our favorite music, we want to play Germany and Russia and all that stuff. So we kind of got him in the van to do that. And it became it wasn't a novelty. But we did it pretty well if the band was suited to doing that kind of stuff. So people really liked it. We did it. And we were playing a lot. So when he left, and some of those songs kind of got retired. And this is through nobody's planning this is just this happen. Yeah, we had to learn a lot of new songs. Yeah. And we had to learn a lot of learning more current songs because we didn't play anything current for a while. So we we learned like Blink 182 and seven. That was when it was a big deal. Well, the reaction was huge to that because all of a sudden, they're like, oh my god, I'm so you know, people are not they're never going to tell you they don't like what you're doing. Yeah. That was gonna go dude, you gotta quit playing that song. But we when we did quit there. Oh my god, I'm so glad y'all are playing that now. And it's just so much better. And wait, it wasn't better. No. It's just different. Different. Yeah. And so yeah, we just kind of had to, again, because we had to adapt to adapt. Yeah, I think like when later on Scott Holden, join our band. And he was a, like, kind of a, he's a great singer. But he could sing like, you know, that kind of, he had that kind of high screaming voice. He could do a lot of stuff. We can do like audio slave, stuff like that. And that's when it was a big deal. So we adapted and we started doing stuff. Just you just have to have to watch. Yep.

Randy Hulsey  26:44

And I think that that's a great segue into walking into the now with current bands. You know, let's talk about those. So you have shotgun road, you have the still Newman duo. You have. Mr. Wonderful you have diamond Jack, which happens to be my favorite of all of them. I just maybe I'm just 70s kind of guy but that that music just resignate most with me diamond Jack's probably your favorite because I do the least. Well, you heard it first ladies and gentlemen. All you listeners I didn't want to say it. But Ken has confirmed the obvious.

Kent Newman  27:22

I'm just sexy.

Randy Hulsey  27:25

Purpose. Every band has to have a Fabio. Right. Yeah, I think the brown Brett Brett was it in rat ranch for a while right? And no, what

Kent Newman  27:33

happened was, again, those are bands that kind of they were like Stacey already had his theory. Well, Stacy stills, he's the best man. And that was a relationship that really helped me when I got out of Iran, because he had his vision for his country man, which was that classic country. It's like 80s 90s country. And that's just his, you know, what he's really into. And we were finding that it was it worked. You know, he was right. I mean, people like that kind of music, we ended up. And with that with our country band, you know, there's a lot of how I put this, there's bands, it's still kind of, they'll say their country band, or they'll say us and they still want to try to be like a variety band, they still kind of want to be everything to everybody get away from it. And that's okay, I'm not I'm not look, it's if it works for them. I'm not gonna say there anybody's doing anything wrong. There's no one way to do it. But for us, we kind of sat and thought about it. And we're like, you know, and when we do like to rock songs, and it's all country, you know, and what we found again, no one's gonna come up to you and go, Man, you guys suck. But it when we, if we get any kind of compliment, or one of the ones we get a lot is, Oh, we're so glad because y'all just do guess what y'all do? Y'all do country, right. And when we're playing in a country bar, if it's like actual thing, that guy can play the wobble. The DJ can play that stuff. You know, that's what it's for. That's the point of it. And I think people kind of took to that. And nowadays, everything's so pigeon holed, I mean, the tribute band thing. And people kind of want to know what they're gonna get. And I think that's why tribute bands are such a big deal right now. So variety bands are just, you know, that it's just not like it used to be, you know, well to play everything. Like, what was cool about that. And it was a band of its era. The thing that we didn't arrange, we would probably do if we did anything, right. was we didn't man you never knew what the hell when we could play anything. Yeah, and that was cool. Because because it really opened up. We could play anything. And are the only criteria we had in that band was can we make it sound worth a damn? Yeah. Does it sound good? Are people gonna know it? That's it. And I think I'm not gonna say song selection isn't important, because it obviously is. But if there's one thing I kind of learned, I think I've learned but for me it works is that the main thing is can you make a sound good? Then the next thing is are people going to kind of know it? Yeah. And I really mean by kind of know it. I mean, it doesn't have to be the most popular song. But people they kind of either like your band or they don't Yeah, They make up their mind pretty quick. So even if you're up there playing their favorite music, and they don't like you, that's actually worse because they hate you more like, I can't play there. I love this song. You know, why are they playing the song, you know? So. And so what I mean by that is if you have a focus, it's that seems to that seems to have helped with these bands. What we have now is saying having a little we didn't want I didn't want to be an attribute man. Not that I didn't want to be in one. But I didn't. Nothing really comes to mind. And there's a lot of great tribute bands and but you know, we started doing the diamond Jack thing and Scott Madigan's in that one for my ranch. And, you know, we started talking about it, and we were just kind of like, well, just nothing after 1980. Man, let's just Yeah, keep it all 70s and see what we got. And then, and then the guys in it just lend themselves to that kind of

Randy Hulsey  30:44

stuff perfectly. Exactly. Worked out. Great. Awesome. So would you say that of the, I think four or five, four bands or pay for for things? Yeah, that's, that's three more than I do. Is there one? And it's not a slight on any of the players in any of them? That's not why I'm asking this question. But does one of the bands genres register or resonate better? With you as a musician? Like the 70s? Or the 80s? I mean, what? No, I

Kent Newman  31:14

mean, it's, they're all unique. And they're different. And I like, I don't know, man. I mean, everybody's their own. Unique, you know, mixture of chemicals. But like, for me, it's, I mean, I like playing everything. I mean, I always have, you know, I mean, it's just, it's fun to be in a good band, and you know, what doesn't really matter what you're playing, you know? So, that's all I care about, are they do they sound good? You know, I mean, and it's fun to play things that different the country band was, it wasn't, it wasn't challenging, because I, I mean, I kind of already I knew what to play, and I had to learn. I just had to learn so many songs I wasn't familiar with. That was the hardest part of that band.

Randy Hulsey  31:53

I don't, because historically, you weren't probably a country, country western. I

Kent Newman  31:58

never played it. I mean, I like everything. And I would, you know, I mean, you know, growing up, I probably the first people that I saw playing guitar that I liked country, guys, you know, like, Glen Campbell and Jerry Reed, you know, Jerry Reed was his big influence on me and anybody when I was little little, because he just was having so much fun and great picker. Oh, everything about him was bad. And you were just like, I want to do that. Yes. And I think that's what I'm looking for in a band is just does it when you're in a band, your job is just creating an atmosphere. You know, I mean, that's I agree with that's all you're doing. Yeah. And so I think as long as those every bands doing that, and whatever atmosphere is creating, that's that's the point of it. Yep. Yeah. And then that if your original cover, it doesn't matter. What you're doing the same thing. Really?

Randy Hulsey  32:44

Yep. And you touched on it a little bit earlier. You're doing some guitar instruction on your maybe on your own and through the School of Rock, can you

Kent Newman  32:54

do school rock a couple of days? Do like Tuesday Saturday? And that's and I love it. It's awesome. Not a slight against it, but mainly because it's just right by my house. So it's so easy to go do. And then of course I got a tattoo, you get attached to people and yeah, it's hard to not do it anymore. Not that I would never, I would ever stop. But I I would never do more than that.

Randy Hulsey  33:12

And I'm assuming is just guitar that you're you're you're teaching or saying I learned

Kent Newman  33:17

there, right? You want to do keyboard? Can you teach keyboards like well, again? I yeah, I could but sure. I'm not gonna you know,

Randy Hulsey  33:25

well, for the listeners, are you? Are you taking new students? Are you looking for new students not really, I know, things are picking back up from from COVID a little bit and you guys are getting back out on the stage, which is going to keep you busy, but wanted to make sure that if there were listeners out there that were looking for lessons, we wanted to make sure to plug how to how to find you really the

Kent Newman  33:46

only ones I'm doing privately that I still do are like songwriting, how some guys would write in songs, according I've done a lot of I got a, you know, I've done a lot of recording on logic. Since they invented logic. I've been using it so so that's just one of those things where I've given I give, there's a buddy of mine in Dallas, who now we just started out as just friends just working on stuff. And now he actually, you know, actually helped him here and there. But yeah, it's just hard to it's hard to find time. I you know, I don't want to I like to work with somebody that has a, you know, specific goal. You know, like, if they're learning they want to get this thing done. That's good friend of ours. It was a she wanted to sing in her wedding. She had a goal, you know, sure. Absolutely. Made it cool. You know,

Randy Hulsey  34:31

well, how long have you been associated with school rock?

Kent Newman  34:34

About three years? Four years? Yeah, but great operation. I mean, it's so cool to, to see. I mean, it's a cool concept. And it's, it's music and I don't know how to put it. It's a very it's just, it's just the attitude of it is good, I think Yeah. You know, to like the team work and all that stuff. And I mean, it's just a good it's just a good concept because really to me, like even when I give lessons Like I have for right now I got all my teenage boys at school rocking. And you know, if they play guitar the rest of their life, that's cool. You know, I mean, whatever I don't, you know, they're gonna end up being whatever they're gonna be. But I think anybody that's, I think the best thing that I learned from playing guitar. It's provided me with a living, and it's been fantastic. And I'd absolutely love to do it every time I get to go do it. But it was a chance to challenge and you never master it. Yeah. You know, like, when I give people lessons, I'm like, this is like a Rubik's cube with an infinite number of tiles, because you're always learning new things about it. And I think anytime you pursue something like that, that's just good for your soul. Yeah, your character, especially if you're a young, like I said, like that voice saying to me, I was mad at my aunt, because she said I was, you know, she kind of took away the amount of work he put in. Exactly, you know. So hopefully that kind of work ethic not that I would ever try to teach somebody a work ethic. But the way it was explained to me one time, and I thought it was great was that if you want to do something, because it's fun, well then play a game on your phone. I mean, that that stuff is designed to be entertained. Yeah, exactly. But playing guitar is fun. But it's, it's worthwhile. I mean, it's all of the sacrifice you make to do it is the fun is part of it. That's just the part of Blink. And it's such a weird thing to make a living doing something that is fun. Exactly. It's like playing sports or something. Like people, they never, they always kind of think it's a phase, right? Your family to grow

Randy Hulsey  36:34

up one day, and cut your hair and get a real job at the, you know, the Walmart or whatever. And

Kent Newman  36:41

I think the reason is, because when they see what you're doing, and you're the ultimate product of it is fun, you're smiling, and you're putting on a show, but they don't realize that all the work was you know, 90% of it was not you don't see it. Yeah. And it's going back to the teaching thing. I think anything can get kids involved without having a kid so what what I know, but that shows them that the work is worth it. You know, it's worth I agree. The best students are always the ones that have been like a musical theater, yeah. Or band where they're used to like working at it. But then when you have those kids like, like you have the school rock, they put together the shows, and it'll have like a theme like punk rock or whatever. I don't direct the shows ever. But Mike McCullough from Diamond Jack, our keyboard player, he directs some of them. And he always laughs about it, too, that these kids will be like, Oh my god, I'm so sick of this song. You know, you know, you don't get to be sick of a song. That's not your you can't play it good till you're sick of it. You have to teach karate. Until it's repetitive. It's repetition. The whole thing of like, you don't practice until you get it right. You practice till you can't get it wrong. And I still played stuff wrong constantly. You're because you're still gonna mess it up. Yeah. But if you ever have a kid that's been like a musical theater, which mean Nobody works harder than those people. Yeah. Because it's 30 people making one thing hangs out. It's not about how you feel about it. Yeah,

Randy Hulsey  38:00

I agree. And I was always told to and I tried to instill this into my son, Brandon, who's playing a lot of shows with me. Now, you get better when you collaborate with other musicians and play with other musicians, you can be the Stevie Ray Vaughn King in your bedroom, right? But, you know, pushing him out on the stage. And it's like that stage fright. And it's like, you just have to, you have to get out there, you have to experience you have to do it. And once you do you look back six months from now, and you say, Oh, really wasn't that big of a deal. It's just the unknown that we're afraid of. And again, I think you you hone your talent, and you get better when you learn from other people and not just stay secluded by yourself.

Kent Newman  38:41

And sometimes that's learning what not to do. Exactly. Not being negative, but it's true. I mean, especially like, I've been playing for so long. I mean, I've learned more from people that I've had to get rid of, or, you know, where I'm like, Okay, why? What made that unpleasant? And then I don't want to do that. Yeah, don't be that guy. Right. You know, like, even just something simple, like drinking or drunk, you know, I mean, I never really did. I was never a big drinker. But after I'd played with guys who were then I was like, man, there's I don't want to be that guy. Exactly. Any of that's part of the unfortunately, in the in, especially in like a local music scene are people that are hobbyists, when they're not actual, and nothing against people that do it, as you know, that's their hobby. Or they do it part time, because they can still do a professional job of it. But basically, some guys played because they can get drunk. You know, I mean, that's a hello bar tab where they go, right. Yeah. And I'm not even joking about. I mean, there are people that have that career, because they can be I mean, drinkers drink, you know, and I'm not even looking down on I'm not even, I'm not even looking at drinking. People hard time for drinking. I'm just talking about when it, you know, affects your performance, and then they tell themselves it doesn't and they wrap analyze it just like anybody that drinks a lot does. But, you know, like, that was the other thing is I would always get, you know, I would never pretend to know how to run a club or be a manager or book bands or any of that stuff. And it's stuff I've always kind of done, but I would never do it for a living. But, you know, I heard too many club owners complain about those guys. Yeah, you know, cuz we didn't like in RAM ranch. We were pretty straight. Yeah. So they'd be like, Oh, my God, worse. Man. We were like it when y'all play here because you don't get drunk. Yeah. And that's just so that's kind of depressing when you think about it. Because why would you be praised for something you should do? Anyway?

Randy Hulsey  40:35

I know. You want to cookie? Yeah, exactly. Well,

Kent Newman  40:38

I've never been to prison. Well. They would, but they would tell me that. And so I'd hear it a lot, though. I mean, I hear and I mean, these are really good club owners guys that were did a great job of and own their

Randy Hulsey  40:49

own club. And they would be drunk. Yeah, but they own that's their prerogative, though, right. They're not trying to be your your, your the employee, you're the hired help. And that's interesting. You say that, because I won't mention the name of the place that I play. But for a while at this place, it was a, you know, all of your food for the musicians was taken care of all the all of your drinks were taken care of all night long. And it got to a point and unlike you, I might have a beer here. And there. I play many of the micro breweries and rarely do I go and drink there. I just I just don't, probably because I don't want to feel like shit for four days after that, right? Even if I drink when but but but my point is, there was groups and bands that have come in there and abused that so much that the owner says no more, right? No more. And it's like, well, wait a minute, that was kind of part of my deal that I worked out with you. And now I'm getting stripped of that because somebody else has abused it. So you're always gonna have those people I think and you're never going to get away from that one time.

Kent Newman  41:50

Ric LT phones a club and Tyler called Rick's on the square. And he's owned it forever. And he's an awesome club owner. Any hard working guy takes incredible pride and one time and he would be Trenkle No, no offense, Rick, if you hear this, but you know, Rick like to drink at his own club. He's the host of the party. It was cool. But you're on stage plan. And I'll never forget one time he said to me, because let me tell you something, you know, he's older. And I kind of took what he said seriously, he said, no one wants to pay someone to get drunk. You know, and I didn't really know. I mean, I kind of knew what he meant. But he was talking specifically about being a club owner, and paying a bunch of guys to do his show and getting drunk any any and he was dead serious. He said, Man, nobody, there's no boss that's happy that they're paying you and you're getting drunk on their job. Even if it's that job that they're not happy about, well, it

Randy Hulsey  42:42

can be humiliating to the bar owner. If you if you have a group in there that is underperforming, and they're abusing the

Kent Newman  42:49

well. And I think it's it's I don't know, I mean, everyone has their own opinion. And I don't like I said I, in my experience, you know, I've have played with guys and that, you know, will they kind of drink or they don't drink or they this whatever. And generally speaking, if someone tells you it can't we're kind of getting back into that area of people you wouldn't Are you know, not to work with. And I've had people tell me Yeah, man, well, I really don't feel like I'm complete till I have a couple of beers. And that just right there. I'm like, Well, I'm never gonna play with that guy. Yeah, and I mean, and that's just me, I'm not being prejudiced. Um, but um, but I know, like, I've played I don't want to drag anybody into this but I'm, there's guys that I played with that I played with him when they were drinking, I'm playing when they weren't drinking. I played one with them when they were kind of drinking and every you know, every dip and you can't tell me that they did a better job when,

Randy Hulsey  43:42

I mean, almost exclusively when they weren't drinking. They think they're they think they're doing but

Kent Newman  43:48

it is. Kind of, I don't even know how we got on the subject. But it's a shame that it's become. I say it's a shame. It's interesting to me that it became intertwined. Yeah, no, like bands are doing shots and all that. And when we were like in the in, like when the rat Ranch, like during that whole 90s era when we were playing, we actually traveled quite a bit but we would come play like those Houston clubs and, and those bands party man Oh, yeah, party harder. And we never did it all. And you'd have you know, your buddies that are in other bands. Yeah, man. You know, we like party with the crowd. And that's what people like, and they like it when you interact with them and all this stuff. And we didn't do any of that. Yeah, we didn't talk between songs. Yeah. And no, no, I don't mean this. I'm not bragging but we were as big a band as there was. And so in that little scene, yeah. So we didn't have to do all and it wasn't that we were trying to purposely not do it. And I wasn't even looking down my nose even to this day. If they want to do that's fine. I'm just talking about me. What worked for us? Yeah, what I saw work. It's just It's just weird that it became I don't know what it is. Maybe it's the whole drugs and raw enroll in Yeah, I don't really know the mistake behind APR just that you're in a bar. Yeah, I

Randy Hulsey  45:04

think you know so well from a from a gig perspective how many shows a year are you personally playing across the across the bands?

Kent Newman  45:16

Man that's a good so weird now thinking about it because last year was so crazy

Randy Hulsey  45:19

on on on normal conditions.

Kent Newman  45:23

I mean I'm usually playing about tuition now not even close where Obama claimed let me three days a week now okay. Yeah means I mean I'm playing I'm pretty much every weekend night. We Okay. Well, I know I'm on off like tonight. I'm playing on a Thursday. We played last Sunday. Yeah. And what's weird about now is it's real. It gets real bunched up like, normally like Mr. Wonderful is our 80s man. And it's just three guys. And we played a tracks and it's kind of a MTV girl band. Yeah. Anyway, that band probably plays the most because there's only three of us and it's pretty easy to to get. It's easy to get three guys together to even just go play the show. And then our country band probably plays the next and then our but like diamond Jack, our 70s band. It's five guys and more money. It's a bigger deal. We usually would play like twice a month. Okay, well, like in April, we have like six shows. You know I'm saying so it kind of goes for Diamond Jack Yeah, goes in fits and starts. They don't really? They don't really.

Randy Hulsey  46:24

So recently, probably over the last few months, you guys added Mike McCullough to the diamond Jaqueline up. Tell us how that came about. I've known Mike for some time and remembering back from the sister Mary tarantula day. So yeah,

Kent Newman  46:42

Michael, I don't mind forever. Actually, what was weird was Mike was one of the first persons we left when we got out of ranch, me and Scott, were talking about doing something. And he's one of the first people we called and then it just didn't really and whenever. And then Paul Byron was playing with this. And he just he was done. He didn't want to do anymore. In the corner, go do whatever he needed to do. And so it was a man, it was a no brainer. You know, he's just Mike's one of those guys who can play guitar. He's saying he's so talented, you know. So that was one of the easiest like, okay, transition. Yeah, I mean, we just use a little bit and we need to rehearse more. That band is the one that sounds hard. And it's like deceptively hard, because you think you know those songs because you played them so often. And then you'll be in the middle of the show going, Wait a minute, is it? No to hear, and they're always gonna, so we were gonna, we got to rehearse before next. We just did a show on St. Patrick's Day, and we hadn't played in a while, and we probably should rehearse. And of course, it's not. Again, it's one of those, that whole perception thing, like people can't really tell if you just kind of smile and get through it. 90% of the people can't tell you did it. But it's kind of a confidence.

Randy Hulsey  47:52

You know, you know, you know, when you do it, you know,

Kent Newman  47:56

the thing about the thing that's weird, like the big difference, like whether I ranch too, we played 200 shows a year, you know, four days a week, sometimes five days a week, so like, mistakes happened. But you immediately got to fix them. I mean, like, right away your next day, you're like, I'll get it tomorrow. Exactly. And what was weird for me was like going to these bands, like when I when Stacy and I started playing together, like it was country one nine, and then it was rock, and it was it was different. And you play a show. And then you would just kind of flub something up, and it sucked because it would like it was on your mind for like the next three weeks. Like, I can't wait to do that again. So I can make up for that. When I stumped the place up with that, Yo, you know, or you see the video, you're like, oh my god, I can't sing that anymore. I gotta I gotta do something different right there. And then the other thing was really what's been a challenge for me just personally is I have a terrible memory anyway. It's just lyrics man I used to because I you know, we used to do song so often that you memorize them in a week you were done. You played them so much that you knew them right away. And in these bands, I'm like, Man, do I gotta do the iPad? I guess you know, you hated to do it. But you didn't have a choice. Yeah, I mean, you just had to do it. So I have to do it sometimes. And what sucks about that is and that's just me, but I mean, I can tell when I'm reading I can listen to the recording. Yeah, and tell you Oh, yeah, that's a far Yeah, I had to look on how far you can hear me. Yeah, I can't sing in tune anyway. So I don't need something else. Any other distract? Well,

Randy Hulsey  49:27

if it's if it's any consolation, I was at where was a Compaq center and I was watching I had tickets to see cheap trick and Aerosmith. And it was maybe to my surprise, maybe doesn't surprise me all that much. But I noticed that there were teleprompters on they look like wedges on the stage and Steven Tyler is reading the teleprompters. And what does that tell us that this guy has been singing the songs for 4550 years now and wrote it still doesn't can't remember Wait which first went before the My favorite teleprompter story is my good friend George Olsen used to be the sound engineer for George Strait. You know, he was the guy. Right?

Kent Newman  50:07

So George Strait has a teleprompter big old teleprompter. Right. So he's to tell a story about how he doesn't look at it. You don't notice George Strait? It doesn't seem like he ever looks at it. You know, like, they see him on the big screen. They say, and, you know, George Olsen's done hundreds of shows with him. But if it goes out straight say, Hey, man, I he gets off.

Randy Hulsey  50:30

Look at that. Well, I'll tell you, it's become somewhat of a crutch for me. But here's what happens with the teleprompter is you learn how to look at it. Exactly. And it's more of a place like okay, I'm here and it's a glance at it. It's not like

Kent Newman  50:48

you're not reading it, like you're reading a book. But you're, you're saying okay, that's the next you know, when your progression. Yeah, exactly. And like with me with us, like in like diamond jack, and our country band is all live. No tracks, we we know very, very much. But we might change, something might get changed or whatever. But if somebody messes up, it's no big deal. But in our 80s Bam, and we got like keyword tracks and percussion. And like we did in orange. I mean, you can't mess up. No, you can't. And when people make kind of look down their nose at you playing with tracks. Normally it's people that have never done it. Because it's hard and it's in it's nerve racking. Well read that. I mean, the tempo of the song is everything that because you can't like slow or speed the track up or better almost do it. Yeah, but yeah, but that's the one where you like you have to have notes because you're like, okay, that does three times and then and then what's funny is you like you'll get mad at like the guy that wrote, you know, relaxed by Frankie Goes to Hollywood, you're like, why did he add a measure there? You're like mad at the guy. That's stupid. All of a sudden, you're some sort of critic about the house. Like the one that always cracks me up is it's even like really mechanic like Depeche Mode. You know, it's very mechanical. Like they had a lot of stuff with sequins, everything, but their arrangements are always a little weird. You know, there's a spot where they leave a measure out or do something right. You're like, Those sons of bitches. Like, don't do that.

Randy Hulsey  52:15

Because now it's not a standard track to you. Right? Something aloo Oh, filter. At the time, they

Kent Newman  52:21

only do three those. Right?

Randy Hulsey  52:23

What does Kent Newman do when you're not on stage? Are there hobbies, pets? What like sleep? I

Kent Newman  52:29

have a fantastic wife. She's awesome. And we spend as much time together as possible. We were married for 20 more years. And

Randy Hulsey  52:39

three What guy? What What's the anniversary date? Look, dude. No, no, we're not recording the recorders off right.

Kent Newman  52:49

Where we talk about her move on. Brian broadcast for a long time. So you know, she's gonna listen to this and tell me oh, you should have gotten closer to the mic. What did you know that day? Well. She's married to me. So she's used to disappoint.

Randy Hulsey  53:07

Her expectations are an all time low at this point, right? He says the same way, like 31 years we've been married. Yeah, there's no expectation. It's

Kent Newman  53:15

like people will ask her how do you do it? She just is she'll do that thing worse, like not really an answer. It's like a no likes you I can neither confirm or deny you. No, no, no, she's awesome. And we got to spend a lot of time not to be. But you know, during this whole lockdown thing, it was actually we had a great time because I was gone. So much of our relationship traveling. Yeah, that we really like being together. So that's cool. But I don't really have any hobbies. I read a lot. I mean, I read a lot. And

Randy Hulsey  53:45

Dr. Seuss, mainly, is that some of your favorite stuff?

Kent Newman  53:49

Anybody that says it's bad for me? That's what I read. I read a lot. Um, yeah, as much as I can. But I have, you know, I do a lot with music. I'm usually doing something and I enjoy it. I mean, there's never there's not a lot that I have to do. That feels like, oh, man, I gotta do you know, like, busy work, or oh, man, I gotta go get this right here. Yeah, it's usually fun. Or, you know, I mean, there are things I'm up against, like to learn a song or to do something for a song or prepare a lesson from somebody, but did very rarely is like, just oh my god, I do some studio work sometimes. And sometimes that's a little, you know, because what will happen is somebody will ask you to do something, especially during them. When I wasn't playing as much in somebody will have a couple of friends that work in studios, all over the country. And they'll call and say, Hey, man, can you do this? Can you get all the noise out of these tracks? And now we go. Absolutely. I needed something to do. Yeah. Not knowing what it involves. Yeah. So they send it in, you're like, Oh, man. Well, you got to charge them by the hour and you're like, there's no way I can charge them how long this actually took me. Right. It took me four hours just to figure out how to do it. Right. Right. So there was a lot of that going on. But yeah, I don't really ever have to do anything. I'm a lucky, lucky guy. I mean, it's they that's been cool. I guess since I was in the same band for so long. And the thing about the rat race, you got to be a grind. Mainly just having running. I think having all your eggs in one basket type business. Yeah, that got hard. Well,

Randy Hulsey  55:16

you definitely have it spread out now. And I was going to ask you, let's see. Let me let me think about that before I say it. So Mr. Wonderful diamond jet. So yeah, I mean, for the most part, except the duo. All of the bands are genre specific. Have you guys ever talked about recording your own music as part of those genres? Like doing doing some country songs or doing some 70 sounding songs?

Kent Newman  55:44

We recorded a lot of stuff originally on his own, and we probably will, it's just a weird deal. You don't do an original music is, you know, writers, right? You know, if you create, you're doing it, you don't think about it, you don't go, I'm gonna be a songwriter, you know, you just do it or you don't do it. So when you have a band, like with me, I write songs, and I record them all the time while doing for myself, and I have a weird, like, I'm one of those. I'm not really just dying. Oh, my God, hear what everybody's got to hear what I did, you know, I usually write him and get to kind of get him out of my system, just because I wanted to get them recorded. But I'm not like just dying to everybody's got to hear this. And that's just and then nothing wrong with people that feel that way. And just the way I am. If I really, if I'm going to write a song, it's because I can't not I mean, it just it just has to be done. Right, right. So at this point, the reason to record anything with any of those bands really is to kind of just kind of keep people listening or kind of maybe generate some interest. I

Randy Hulsey  56:41

also thought about it because most in I could be you can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think, well, maybe a lot of you guys do that for a living music is a living, and I'm just thinking about it from a monetizing perspective. Like it's another source of income. You know,

Kent Newman  56:57

how I mean, I believe me, I work on projects for people all the time that actually make money in you know, they're writing music and, and it's, I don't know that it's a source of income for anybody. Oh, yeah. You want to change? Yeah. To me, it's like, you're really doing it, you know, even like, again, we didn't ever really get into this, but you know, things, the way people consume music is, first of all, it's very personal to every person have their own thing, but it's just different. I mean, like now, like, if you went back to 1978, when everything was based on like album sales, you know, like guys would tour. So you would go buy their album, because that's where they were going to make labor support and the writer and now it's finally shifted to performance where now they have to go play. Kevin Fowler's got to go perform to make money. The recording is just to keep his name in front of people. Yeah, I don't know that he's really not. God bless Kevin Fowler. I'm not bad mouthing the guy in the least. He's, uh, he's awesome. Yeah. But when he records? Yeah, I don't know if he's making any money on those recordings. I don't know. I mean, I hope he does. I know for a fact like, let's think it's somebody that I actually know something about, like Eric Johnson. Yeah. Eric Johnson is incredible. Yeah, very fascinating. making no money, record music. He's only making money performing. Yeah, he's as good as it gets, like Joe Bonamassa talks about that all the time. It's like, he records just so that he has material. Yeah. But it's all about

Randy Hulsey  58:22

to put in the face of somebody. So that's,

Kent Newman  58:24

it's, it's kind of that's again, and I don't know, it's a weird model. Whenever we start doing it, we start talking about money always kind of glaze over anyway, because I've made a living and I and I make good money. And I can't do it just because it's gonna make me some money.

Randy Hulsey  58:39

Oh, no, it has to be, you know, from the heart. Does love what you're doing? Maybe since sincere, right? Yeah, sure. Well,

Kent Newman  58:46

I guess I mean, even like, weird, rare. And you know, there was so many back in the day, there was a lot of private parties. And we never did that. Yeah, there's so much money we didn't make because we'd go do like one wedding and go, Oh my God, they're gonna pay us like $5,000 Oh, my God, this is so great. And we'd be so excited. And then right in the middle of it, we'd be like, Let's never do this again. Right. I don't care how much they're paying. And then a month later, you

Randy Hulsey  59:10

go do it again.

Kent Newman  59:11

Yeah. So it's hard to get motivated to do something, just because it's gonna make money but at the same time, don't get me wrong. You know, we have to promote ourselves. We have to you got to keep keep things in front of people. And I think that's a good reason. And we've actually just started talking about that recently. Mike Catalano written a lot of songs. We'll have tons of new material. And yeah, I imagine we will record something because I can do it at my house. Pretty easy. I'm trying to cut back on other things so that I'll have time to do that. Specifically what you said. Yeah, we should. And I think I think people and the way people consume music like I don't know why people put out albums anymore. I mean, really? Everyone only bites off one song at a time anyway. Yeah,

Randy Hulsey  59:52

it's not like it was back in the day where you bought an album and a lot of times the album was conceptual, you know, a concept album. them or whatever

Kent Newman  1:00:01

that was. Not only that, but it's the it's the delivery system, isn't it? Like now, you can look at a, you know, Spotify, that's how many times people listen to. Yeah. You know, like you don't know. I mean, you know how many albums Led Zeppelin sold, but I don't know how many times people listen to, right? I mean, it's a completely different way of keeping track of things. I agree, you know. So it's almost impossible to compare now. But what's crazy about is like, if you went back to 1978, and found somebody that was just getting into music, and you had, like, had an iPhone for the future, and you said, Look at this, this is how many millions of people are listening to music, you would think, Oh, my God, the music business is going to be bigger than ever was. And it's just not, it's not. Because the delivery system is just different. There's not a mechanism to create rockstars like there was on radio. Yeah, not like there was. And it's just, it's just different. I don't again, I don't want everyone to be those wolves to be better. It's just different. If you go, I was showing a kid a video the other day it was it was Peter Frampton, right. And like the Texas jam or something, right? And there's like 100,000 people. And there's this little bit beard, nobody even you can't even tell who it is. He's so far away. And everybody's there for because it's the event. And they're listening to his songs. There's not even a jumbotron. There's not that's what you were there for. There

Randy Hulsey  1:01:20

was but it was so cheesy. There was no definition to it at all. So you didn't even know what you were looking at.

Kent Newman  1:01:25

With that many. There's no way that many people would go to see something like that. Yeah, you know, it's just it's just different. It's not better or worse. It is. It is. Yeah, I mean, I'm we'll probably record some stuff, it's so easy to record now that there's really not a good reason not to

Randy Hulsey  1:01:37

Well, now you could almost produce in your your own home, if you know what you're doing the same quality that you're going to get in a Music Row in Nashville, right, the last

Kent Newman  1:01:46

rat race thing we did. I recorded all of it at my house, almost, you know, other than some vocals and some other stuff. And Ernie wells helped us out a lot of that stuff. But yeah, I mean, it's not a, it's easy. You know, what's interesting to me about that is, I remember every technology step, like I remember, like when drum machines became a thing, right? Everybody's like, Oh, my God, you know, they're gonna, they're gonna replace drummers or they're gonna, everybody's gonna make it or I remember when four track recorders came out. Now my average is gonna record stuff. And they didn't. Yeah, it was it's available. But I think the number of actually motivated talented people has kind of stayed the same. Yeah. Otherwise, we would be just inundated, I would think was stuff you want. I mean, you have to be pretty motivated. Last, Brad, think of all the stuff he Yeah, all the motivation, he had to have to go to all of those steps. And everybody all and they'll be those people? I could have done that. Well, you could have done that. But did you do it? It's the same thing as watching a performer. Like if you go to a coffee shop, and you see a guy, and he's got a tip jar, and he's up there. And he's got a speaker on a steak, and he's hammering through a bunch of songs. There's so many musicians, there'll be like, I could I could do that, or, or, you know, or look down their nose. But that guy is doing it. Yeah, there's a lot that he had to do to get to that point. Sure. And you have to hand it to somebody that got that far with it. Yeah, you know, I mean, it's not. Again, it just because you can do it doesn't mean you're going to be able

Randy Hulsey  1:03:11

to do well. And what a lot of people don't know is the same amount of work goes into that, that goes into being in a band, you have to book the show, you have to learn the songs, you have to you have to deliver the songs, you have to load in loadout. I mean, there's no there's no differences, just one person versus four people. Right. That's really the big difference.

Kent Newman  1:03:31

And it's just that, but that's probably the kind of the nature of a lot of musicians. It's very easy to I guess, look down your nose at anything. Wow, I could I could have done that. Or I could. Well, yeah, you

Randy Hulsey  1:03:43

Yeah. But whatever. Exactly, exactly.

Kent Newman  1:03:46

It's kind of like guys that you played sports in college, I gotta become professional, but it's kind of the same thing. It doesn't really mean anything. It's just, you know, you got to have respect for anybody that goes to that much trouble to, to perform

Randy Hulsey  1:03:57

well. And I told my son Brandon, when I started finally getting him kicked in the pants to get out and play some shows with me. And he's a great lead guitarist. I said, Brandon, keep in mind that if there's 100 People in this place tonight 99.7 of them cannot do what you do. Sure. Right. And if they could, they would be like you said they would be we're winter show winter next show. You're a critic, but yet where are you booked again? When's your next show is kind of the mindset

Kent Newman  1:04:25

the other part of that are the guys that actually do play a lot and still act like it's no big deal or kind of look down their nose at the at the actual activity they're doing like I will we're just gonna get up there and you know, we got to sit in bass player and we're just gonna like why go to all that trouble. And you know what I'm saying like not finished not take it to the next. I agree. I just that's another thing is like if you're going to do it if you're going to be in a cover, like they're in a cover band, but then they look down their nose at cover bands. It's like

Randy Hulsey  1:04:56

doing the same that's the pot calling the kettle black. Not

Kent Newman  1:04:59

only that, There's no okay look everybody gets tired of a song or tired of doing everything it doesn't matter what you do you're going to get tired of anything and you get fatigued but the fact of the matter is really part of your job as a professional musician if that's what you're trying to be is to kind of make that sincere and new again sure you know that you know, I mean yeah, I'm tired of hearing Sweet Home Alabama, but that doesn't mean it's not a fantastic song Exactly. Has nothing to do with it's still a you know, Hotel California is a masterpiece. Sure, I wouldn't listen to it on the radio, but that is just because of my perception of it doesn't make it any less awesome. You know, I

Randy Hulsey  1:05:37

agree with that. So let's real quick let's talk about the gear you use on stage. Is there a go to guitar for you? I know you played multiple ones, but is there one working guitar that anymore right

Kent Newman  1:05:50

now I have like two guitars for each band. You know, like the two I take just for that show? Are they all different guitars? Different guitars for every show. Because like in my country band play Telecasters and 80s band I play those guitars a little hot rotted because everything kind of had that sound even if it wasn't rock and roll it had that kind of pushed sound. I 70s bands it's Les Paul on my strat and they're kind of vintagey so ya know, they're it's pretty much different tools for different bands, but I use the same I use a fractal XA amp. I don't have a real amp anymore.

Randy Hulsey  1:06:25

And what about from a pedal? What about from a potter pedal personally,

Kent Newman  1:06:29

okay, it's it's everything. It's yeah, it's all the effects of the amps. And what's cool about that is with three different bands. It's all three different everything's completely programmed for that.

Randy Hulsey  1:06:37

That's that's really cool. And is there a guitar string of choice that is your go to or do you just put whatever if certain gauge

Kent Newman  1:06:43

or you use dia Dario just because I've always used them?

Randy Hulsey  1:06:47

That's an uncoated string, right?

Kent Newman  1:06:49

I have no idea. I don't know. I'm pretty fast. I do know that I like the balance tension strings. That's a newest of any kind of weird or not weird, but like the newest technology that just I guess over the past few years, I do like those. Yeah, I don't know why. And I play lighter strings. Now when I was in high ranch. I played like 11 or 12. Okay, heavy. Yeah. And now I don't I just don't want to work that hard.

Randy Hulsey  1:07:10

Yeah, right. It's an S beaten on the fingers. Right? Well, I

Kent Newman  1:07:14

play a lot like in our country, man, I

Randy Hulsey  1:07:15

play the most leads. So that's when I went to lighter strings. Because I play guitar all night. And then also I'm like, Well, I'm just put this on all of them. So yeah, there's a couple of songs that you guys need to learn for the diamond Jack. Yeah, yeah. I'm giving you advice. That's right. But it was funny cuz I had one on here. And when I went to see you guys, not too long ago, you were you were actually doing that song. So to act like I'm

Kent Newman  1:07:41

putting it on my phone, but I'm just looking. Um, yeah, cat video was

Randy Hulsey  1:07:46

whatever. Yeah. Okay, so Kaylee bomber. Marillion at the ladies. Okay. You missed. Oh, yeah. Alia by Donnie. Well, so it's, uh, yeah, so well, and I don't I don't really care which band does it but I'm just saying let's let me clarify about doing the both of those songs.

Kent Newman  1:08:06

I'm pretty sure but um, yeah, see, see. I'm

Randy Hulsey  1:08:08

not so dumb after all. Okay. Go for a soda by Kim Mitchell. Yeah, that would be a great one. That would be a great one.

Kent Newman  1:08:15

Man. There was a band that did they read it that song kind of a weird? Not weird. It's not weird at all. It's kind of that modern kind of kindness kind of? Yeah, but it sounded really really

Randy Hulsey  1:08:25

like that. That's that's a good one. Baby come back. My player would be a good one from for Diamond Jack and maybe how long Bye, ace. That was pretty cool, too. We've

Kent Newman  1:08:35

always wanted to do we're not always in what I'm saying. But one thing we've talked about doing like Slyke Stacy's a huge, like yacht rock. He loves that stuff. Right? And we're like, man, if there was ever ban, not that we would start a whole nother project. But we thought maybe we could do like some kind of diamond Jack. Yacht rock night. You know, like, it was tough because especially now with Mike being such a he's such a great piano player, you know? And there's so many of those songs that lend themselves that like we started doing what a fool believes. Oh, yeah, great, man. We do that stuff that we do now. It's kind of yacht Rocky is like what a fool believes ride like the wind. Yeah. And I can't remember there's lonesome loser. Kind of have that kind of relaxed kind of Yeah, so yeah, that's good stuff, though. Yeah, for sure. That's my prediction. I think next, I know there are a couple of bands and there's even like a couple of national X. They're like yacht rock bands, but I have a feeling that's gonna be the next that'll be cool. Dude, those radio stations are like the most popular one. Yep, smooth sailing.

Randy Hulsey  1:09:32

Yeah, no, I agree with you outside of the four bands. We talked about any new projects coming up and ya know, well, I guess when you're bug Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I mean, we're What else can you can you work so moving right along. I we're gonna wrap here pretty quick because I know you have a show at Mahoney tonight in The Woodlands. Great place. We saw Mr. Wonderful play out there to what, two or three weeks ago Jerry and I came out and bread or bread came out. Yep. And what about where the listeners can find you in the band on social media?

Kent Newman  1:10:08

Well, they're under the names all the bands diamond Jack. Mr. Wonderful Shagun road and then also Stacey actually, we still have a website. I don't know if y'all remember those. But it's face to face city bans. dotnet

Randy Hulsey  1:10:21

just dotnet I believe. I love to be stumped, but go ahead. Let's look what it says.

Kent Newman  1:10:32

Nope, space city bands.com

Randy Hulsey  1:10:34

Is it okay, well, yeah, we're

Kent Newman  1:10:35

now the dumbass that's all right. That's all I had. I didn't even know so I look. But yeah, that one's out. Like all his he has like his solo gigs. He just he's got tired. Because Daisy keeps it all together man. Easy engine. And he does that's what I don't understand. He does like you know, plays bass in one band plays guitar one band plays drums. I'm like, really? So yeah.

Randy Hulsey  1:10:53

Well, you got everybody has to have that guy in the band that yeah, that's good, though. Because he felt like a slacker. Yeah, he keeps everybody on track. So let's do some quickfire questions. Then we'll get out of here. So Beatles or the stones, Beatles, Van Halen, or Hendrix, Van Halen There you go. Summer or winter winter TV or radio?

Kent Newman  1:11:17

don't really listen to radio has to be TV because I don't even listen to the radio.

Randy Hulsey  1:11:21

Tell everybody and I turned it off in 1980 I guess Yeah. What does that perfect vacation

Kent Newman  1:11:30

Oh my god. Anything with my wife really? We can have fun not even going back and we can edit that part out but this our lovely wife Beth Newman. There you go. No, we do anything with her is good strat or Telecaster, man. Man, there was a time when I would have said strat like immediately but have had to play my Telecaster so much more pro strats hard to beat man because you can kind of make a Strat almost sound like damn near anything. If you play if you have the one. And you've played it long enough. Yeah, it's hard to beat man.

Randy Hulsey  1:12:11

What about Les Paul or strength?

Kent Newman  1:12:13

I even as a Strat I like my I have I thought it was a Les Paul guy for so long. And I had I don't know how many of them owned a lot of Les Paul's. But I have one it's a Les Paul Custom that I and it's like if you had if I had to have a favorite guitar it probably is my favorite guitar. But it doesn't really sound like any other Les Paul Yeah so I think that's what would happen is that was my it's real bright and 20 and every time I would get a Les Paul it just sounds dead to me because I was comparing it to that Yeah, so there's a saying that as you get older you want a Les Paul that sounds like a Telecaster and a Telecaster that sounds like a Les Paul and what that means is you want a Telecaster you want something that's 20 enough like a Les Paul that has enough to hang where you can actually hear the notes and Telecaster you don't want it so 20 You don't hear it you want it to kind of be fee right so yeah, but yeah, I love my Les Paul. I'm

Randy Hulsey  1:13:10

not I love it. I'm not much of an electric guy, right? But I threw my sons over my shoulder not too long ago his Les Paul and I couldn't believe how heavy that guitar is.

Kent Newman  1:13:22

Different. kind of heavy. I don't know. And you know, I don't know. Wait, what? Wait, you know, some guys are lighter guitar sound better heavy? I don't know. Because I've heard bad sounding heavy guitars. Great sounding heavy guitars. I do like guitars that are a little heavier that I don't like super super like it just throws me off. I used to have a gym. That sounded really good. But mainly I don't know what is made out of but it was just too light. I just could not

Randy Hulsey  1:13:47

play it well, early bird or night owl. I know, favorite place to play. And you can plead the fifth on that if you like because I know sometimes we don't want to hurt the places that we play feeling like you know,

Kent Newman  1:14:00

I really like playing Jackie's Brickhouse because all of our bands play there. So that makes it cool. Yeah. And I've just you know, I've known John the GM forever, and maybe just comfort zone. Yeah, know what

Randy Hulsey  1:14:11

to expect. Well, Charlie's a good guy and I think I think you know, and if you don't John, John and I were best friends forever and live together for a while. Oh, yeah. John and Karen. Karen's great and awesome. Yeah, we we did a lot of bad things together, John and that's another podcast for another time. How about favorite song to play live? And I don't think I have one. It's probably the Bieber tunes.

Kent Newman  1:14:38

They just all kind of come and go you know if it sounds good, man, I don't care what it is. You know if you if you're if it's a song you don't even there are times when you learn a song because everybody else wanted to learn it. You're like, oh, man, and then you play it and it's sad and even not even crowd reaction. None of that. You just sound so good. You're like, Yeah, we should. That's Yep.

Randy Hulsey  1:14:55

That was a good move formal training or play by ear.

Kent Newman  1:14:59

I don't think there's a difference. In a way I don't think formal, I don't think you have to choose in a way. Because I don't know, let me put it this way. I don't know anyone who ever had a really good year, who didn't benefit from some training. Does that make any sense? Like, Well,

Randy Hulsey  1:15:17

I think I think where I'm going, my question is, if you put four quarter notes on a staff, right, right, and you ask a musician, what does that mean to you? Eight of them would probably tell you, I have no idea what that means. Right? So that's what I mean by formal training, theory trained or play by air. And I would say I'm a hybrid of rights, right?

Kent Newman  1:15:39

I would, the older I get, it sounds weird. But the more I kind of, because the thing about theory, and when I give lessons, there's theory and there's practical theory. Yeah, I agree with and I'll get like these young guys, especially if you don't learn about modes, and I'm like, why

Randy Hulsey  1:15:57

you don't even know how to spell that work.

Kent Newman  1:16:00

I mean, it's like, a lot of a lot of your turn. I mean, a lot of musical theories kind of reverse engineering, like, like the Suzuki method, when they teach those little bitty like three year old kids how to play violin, everyone has to learn by ear, I think anyways, that's what I mean by there's really no difference. You have to learn how to play by you. Oh, I don't think you have a choice. So I think what's weird is you get those guys that they look down their nose it like, somehow musical theory is going to make them less of a musician. That's ridiculous. That's like being a writer and going, Okay, I know all the words. I need. I don't need to learn any, I don't need to extend my vocabulary at all. That's ridiculous. You got to have as many tools in your toolbox as you possibly can. Yeah,

Randy Hulsey  1:16:47

I never and you'll never have it figured out otherwise you won't ever evolve as a musician. And you

Kent Newman  1:16:53

you have to get to that point where you do realize that word there's no you it's it's unlearn double yeah, there's no amount that's gonna make you the best or whatever. Yeah. And you never it's endless. It's endless. Always. There's always stuff I learned. And I go, Oh, man, I wish I would have known that before. Wow, look, I can do that. Yeah, so

Randy Hulsey  1:17:10

Exactly. Number one, influential musician, or band,

Kent Newman  1:17:17

or Queen would be when you're talking about formative years, and it would have to be queen. Yeah, no doubt about it. Yeah. I mean, what a great, everything about exactly. They're all of the camaraderie, the combination of people coming together and making something greater than any individual. You know, you had those guys, they were also good. And then you had Freddie Mercury who has, and that's it on another planet. He really was. Emotionally, in the way everything everything about what he did was amazing.

Randy Hulsey  1:17:48

Yeah, I agree. They were a phenomenal band. And I think the older I get, the more I enjoy them. They're kind of like the stones. Yeah, like I never was into the stones early. But I've really grown to love their music over the years. Yeah. And

Kent Newman  1:18:00

everything has a different perspective. You have a different perspective, but that is definitely one way. Every time I go back, I'm like, okay, yeah, that was yeah, sometimes you think well, maybe I was a kid and it wasn't that great. Exactly. What was the one thing I was I used to really be in the Ted Nugent like when I was and I you know, I got out of exists got into YC like that. Ted Nugent seems like something you outgrow I don't want to and not anything against Ted. I love him. You don't I'm saying he just that was the way I felt at the time. Yeah, no, I listen to this. So I went and listened to I can't remember. I think it was like the free for all album. And it was so good. Like, it's meatloaf singing on it. Yeah. And you're like, Wow, this is really good. You know? Like,

Randy Hulsey  1:18:39

that's another great yeah, sometimes

Kent Newman  1:18:41

you go back and it's it's horrible. You listen and you go What the hell was I thinking? But every once while you go back Oh, yeah. That was pretty bad.

Randy Hulsey  1:18:49

He is the Motor City madman for sure. Last question. Greatest podcast on the internet.

Kent Newman  1:18:56

I haven't done it yet. Do I get a t shirt?

Randy Hulsey  1:19:00

Yeah, there's one come, they're being made. Let's make a small right. Well, I want to thank Ken for joining the show. I asked the listeners to like share and subscribe to the podcast please also do a review on the show if you'd be so kind that will always help boost the ratings and, and get the word out to people when they're looking for a good quality interview with great musicians. I think that puts us at the top of the heap if we have a great review and a great rating so if you'll be so kind to do that. I would always appreciate it. I want to make sure that you guys follow Kent and the the band's diamond Jack. Mr. Wonderful the duo and Bay City bands.com Shagun wrote our country man's and shotgun road for sure.

Kent Newman  1:19:47

And then we need another disclaimer at the end of this. This says that guy didn't know what he was talking about. Don't let's don't believe any of it.

Randy Hulsey  1:19:57

Right, right. And then so Uh, thanks to the listeners for joining. If you want to find the show, you can find it on Facebook at backstage pass radio podcast on Instagram at backstage pass radio and on the website at backstage pass radio.com. And you guys take good care of yourself and get out there and support the bands and we hope to see you again soon. Thanks, Randy. Thank you, Ken.

Adam Gordon  1:20:22

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