- Today, the show's on fire.

- We're gonna light it up.

You gotta see this.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) We are burning up with some sizzling stories this time.

- Mark Welp is gonna follow along with a park district that's trying to get rid of an invasive plant species but doing it naturally, more healthfully, with fire.

Just burn out the bad stuff.

- We do kind of have a fever going on around here because we keep seeing an explosion of murals all around town and we're gonna show you where the hot ones are.

- And it's also almost summer concert season and The Doobie Brothers are coming to town and one of the founding members of the band is gonna reminisce about one of his former band mates.

He's the only member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame from Central Illinois.

Of the hundreds and hundreds of inductees in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, only one called Central Illinois home.

Keith Knudsen drummer for The Doobie Brothers.

He learned his rock chops while at Princeton High School long before joining The Doobies in their 1970s heyday.

His drum work and background vocals are all over their biggest hits and he even sang leads sometimes in concert.

- Some that he sang, some that he wrote that others sang, so he brought a lot to the band and then as a person, probably one of the nicest, warmest, funniest people you could ever meet.

- [Phil] Though Knudsen died in 2005, his memory resounds with The Doobies, especially as they prepare for a June 24th show in Peoria, not far from his old stomping grounds of Princeton.

- So, I miss him a lot.

I think about him all the time and I carry him in my heart.

- [Phil] In 1970, in California, Simmons and singer Tom Johnson started The Doobie Brothers.

The band scored hits with guitar driven tunes like "Rockin' Down the Highway" and "China Grove."

They toured like crazy with an unusual lineup that boasted not just one, but two drummers.

- In those days, we played really loud.

So having two drummers enabled us to feel the rhythm even more.

- [Phil] In 1973, one of the drummers got tired of all that touring and quit the band.

The Doobies immediately looked toward Keith Knudsen who is drumming and singing for a small time California outfit.

When Knudsen was a teenager, his family moved to Princeton, 50 miles north of Peoria, where his dad bought and ran a cemetery.

At Princeton High, he played drums in the band, then started a rock band with some other teens.

They played shows in the area, once in LaSalle, opening for Paul Revere and the Raiders.

After graduating high school in 1966, he decided to make music for a living, eventually landing in California.

When The Doobies came calling, he quickly jumped aboard.

- He was just such a great musician as far as what he brought to the band.

He had played on so many of our records and he always brought real originality to what he was playing.

- [Phil] In addition to percussion, Knudsen, probably good enough to sing lead for most successful bands, added background vocals for The Doobies, that was vital for the band, known for its multi-part harmonies which Knudsen helped arrange.

Early with the band, Knudsen assisted in the distinct acapella chorus on "Black Water," the song written by Simmons, who handled the tunes lead vocals.

- Keith, again, was such a great personality.

He was always having fun and joking around, but doing "Black Water" particularly he would go, "How about this?

"How about this?"

And he would start singing something.

I'd go, "Yeah, that's great, let's do that."

So, he was really deeply involved in putting background vocals together.

♪ I'm gonna take you by the hand ♪ ♪ By the hand, by the hand ♪ Pretty mama - Come on, you take it!

- [Host] With Knudsen, the band enjoyed continued success, even as vocalist Johnston was hobbled by health problems and eventually was replaced by Michael McDonald.

By the early eighties, Knudsen often would step out front to take lead on some of Johnston's old songs.

♪ People, get ready for the day ♪ But in 1982, would the group beset by creative differences and personnel changes, The Doobies did a farewell tour.

They stayed apart until 1987 when Knudsen got them together.

He persuaded 11 Doobie alumni to join him for a concert to benefit veterans groups.

It was supposed to be a one-off show but the musicians stuck together for a few more fundraisers.

- By the time we were done, we went, "God, we're having so much fun.

"Now what do we do?"

- [Phil] They decided to reunite and record new music with some material written by a new songwriter, Knudsen.

The reunion felt good and soothed old wounds.

- That's what it's all about.

- Yeah, it might sound like an old cliche, but music is really a healing thing.

Not just listening to it, but performing is the same and it's done wonders for us.

- [Phil] Knudsen continued recording and touring with The Doobies into 2004, including a gig in Galesburg.

But he came down with pneumonia twice.

He died at age 56 in February of 2005.

A hard blow, not only to The Doobies, but also their fans.

- He just was always there for the rest of us and always a smile on his face and kind of one of those people that the fans really looked up to because he was such a kind person.

He would always take time to talk to people, sign autographs.

- [Phil] Knudsen was laid to rest at Elmwood Lawn Memorial Park, the Princeton Cemetery his dad had owned.

But he made headlines in 2020 when The Doobie Brothers were finally inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Of the dozens of members of the band, only nine are recognized by name by the Hall of Fame.

One of those names, Keith Knudsen.

In Princeton the next year, he got a star on the downtown Walk of Fame.

His memory burns bright in his hometown as well as elsewhere.

- I think about him all the time and I carry him in my heart.

I think probably most of the guys, anyone that's spent time with him, he'll be with you forever.

He was that kind of a guy.

- [Phil] Whale, hello there.

I wonder if there's a tale regarding that big mural.

Oh, I could spout off about Peoria murals all day.

That's because murals have exploded in and around Peoria and we know that from an organization called Big Picture Peoria.

The group supports and promotes arts in Peoria, even matching building owners who want murals and the artists who want to paint them and the Big Picture Peoria website now features a map showing the addresses and other info for about 50 area murals.

- We refer to it as kind of this renaissance, this blooming of public arts.

Public art lets you know that a city has a positive outlook about its self.

It believes in its vibrancy and it just promotes a lot of foot traffic.

People get out to see a mural.

- And that's what we did, a walking tour of some of the murals.

Here's what we found.

You cast a rather interesting shadow there.

- I'll tell you what, who knew that Bigfoot had googly eyes?

- He's friendlier than ever, right?

- Yeah.

- And what do we got here?

- Looks like we got a monarch getting it on with some kind of flower.

- Yeah, doing that old nectar sucky thing and some trees.

It's cool, very bright and brilliant.

So, that's one.

This is gonna get a whole splotch of stuff.

- Well, speaking of slosh, where are we exactly?

- This is old timers, I guess that have to be me, call it Meyer Alley.

- What street are we on?

Is this a street or an alley?

We don't know.

- 202 something.

I don't know what that means.

We're at CT Gabbard, the back of his place.

So I don't know what that is except it's one of those things with art.

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

- Sure.

- Yeah, yeah.

Here's some lips.

- Yeah, here we got the mouth from "Rocky Horror Picture Show."

- Kissy, kissy, smoochy, smoochy.

That's neat.

- There's an eyeball.

- Another eyeball.

- Not googly.

- Another eyeball here.

Lots of eyes on us here.

That's good 'cause we're TV.

We want the eyes on us.

- Absolutely.

- Okay, here's probably a friend of Sasquatch, a little man from another world coming to Peoria.

- [Guest] Aw, isn't that nice?

- He probably likes this place.

I like Peoria.

- Very colorful.

- Yeah.

- Puts me in a good mood.

- Well, this might be the shortest mural on the tour.

What are you?

About six feet?

- Yep.

- So this is about one, one inch shorter than six feet.

There we go.

We're at Water and Walnut behind Kellerher's, kind of, freight train goes by here.

So that makes sense.

It's a train.

- It is a train and there's a picture of an older gentleman.

It kinda looks like a stock picture of every guy you've seen in the 1950s going to work.

- Actually, he kind of looks like George Manus, Shoe Shine George.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Maybe that's him.

I don't know.

Maybe this is how they took pictures back then.

- They cut the feet off though.

We'll never know.

- We won't know.

And then right next to him, look at that one.

It's like one of your furry friends.

- [Guest] It is.

- It's a dog getting on that train.

And I like this here with this palace with, "Now Playing Whiskey City."

This homage to Peoria's theater history.

So I guess that would be the playwright owned that and then these folks went to the The Palace which was a theater somewhere in Peoria.

I forget where that was.

- We need a theater in Peoria again.

- Oh, that'd be cool.

- It would be.

- And some typewriters.

- And some typewriters.

- We need it all.

Well, that was fun.

I really wish we had a way to capture this moment.

Hmm.

- Hmm.

(camera clicking) - Every year the Bloomington Parks and Recreation Department does prescribed burns around the city so that invasive species like this, well, turn into ash.

But what they do isn't all about destruction, it's also about creation.

Here at White Oak Park and other spots around Bloomington, a trained team is targeting Phragmites, tall, invasive reed grass.

- It gets out of control, it can take over the whole bank.

It's provides a pretty big block for fishermen.

- [Phil] Phragmites can replace native plants, deny fish nutrients and ironically pose a fire hazard.

David Lamb says one of the benefits of using fire is that only a small amount of chemicals will be needed to eradicate the perennial problem.

On the other side of the lake, they use fire to perpetuate a species.

- Native Prairie Grass, Big Bluestem, Little Bluestem, stuff like that over there and that responds really well to the fire, the seed pods released into the soil and that species has developed through fire from pre-settlement times.

The state of Illinois, as you know, is the prairie state and fire would come through here and that is what would remove the weeds and the woody plants and stuff like that from the prairies and allow the prairies to flourish.

So we're basically mimicking that action of nature.

- [Phil] The prairie grass will grow back fairly quickly, providing food, cover and nesting for wildlife and an important habitat for pollinators.

Lamb says the process is safe and convenient.

- This shows how proper management, our qualified team, can coexist out here on a beautiful day, there was somebody fishing, there was people walking, hiking, everything like that.

We didn't close the trail down.

A lot of the citizens got to see us in action and we're real happy about that.

- [Phil] In total, crews burned 54 acres at seven Bloomington Park locations this spring.

- Music wise, we have a twofer this week.

We've already had a story about The Doobie Brothers.

- And now we're gonna jump into the "Eight Track Time Machine" to take a deep dive into one of their biggest hits.

(upbeat music) Welcome to fun-filled Worth Township, Illinois and my garage for yet another episode of "Eight Track Time Machine," where we take a look at the sounds and the songs of the finest pop music era, the eight track era and today we're gonna look at a mega-hit, "What a Fool Believes" which almost did not become a smash for The Doobies until they got the unexpected help from a new friend.

We turn back to 1978 and The Doobies were still a really big concert draw.

They were always road warriors, but by that time they hadn't had a hit in four years with "Black Water," which hit number one.

They hadn't done anything on the charts since then.

So they were really eager to get back to that hit making spot.

The original lead singer, Tom Johnston had left because of several issues, including health problems and Michael McDonald had come aboard.

Now, Michael McDonald had a new soulful type of sound and he had some ideas for a song and he was singing about this situation of love that was sort of unequal.

This reunion between two lovers where the guy was all excited to get back with her but she was just kind of being polite and like, "Okay, I'll hang out with you for a while."

So it's kind of sad.

But he came up with this melody that was kind of almost ironic.

It was very upbeat and poppy, but he got some words, he got some music and it kind of just stalled out.

It wasn't really going anywhere.

Meantime, the reps for The Doobie Brothers wanted McDonald to meet up with a songwriter to do some work with him and that songwriter was Kenny Loggins.

Now, Kenny Loggins had had some hits with Loggins and Messina, but by '78 he was on his own and by that time he was looking to turn the corner and do some of his own solo stuff.

So he's like, "Yeah, I'll meet up "with this Michael McDonald character."

So he pulls up to Michael McDonald's house and these two had never met before.

Never.

So he steps out of his car and he hears from inside the place, McDonald's singing something about he came somewhere back in her long ago or something like that and Loggins is like, "Well, that sounds interesting."

And then he heard this bouncy beat and he's like, "I think we can do something with that song."

So they both decided to release a version of the song and the first one to come out was in the middle of the summer of '78.

It was on the album "Night Watch" by Kenny Loggins and the song sounds a little different from anything you've heard before.

It sounds more like a poppy Hall & Oates type tune.

♪ Anybody else but you ♪ You know ♪ He's watching her go ♪ What a fool does The thing is, he didn't release it as a single and it pretty much went unnoticed by everyone.

Fast forward a few months and it's December of '78 and out comes the newest Doobies album, "Minute by Minute."

On that album is this tune.

♪ He's watching her close ♪ What a fool believes ♪ He sees ♪ No wise man has the power That comes out as a single the next month in January, 1979 and boom, it starts slowly climbing the charts, which is a good thing 'cause you're selling more records all along.

It doesn't then shoot up and go away.

It's climbing the charts.

And finally, by April it hits number one.

So they finally have that smash they'd been looking for.

More to the point, more to the point than just selling records, later, it wins two Grammys for Song of the Year and Record of the Year.

And that's not too bad for a song that had stalled and no one thought was gonna go anywhere for a while, right?

So the moral of the story, if someone offers to help you with your work, take 'em up on that offer, it might turn out to be really good.

Just ask The Doobies.

Once upon a time in Peoria, corn was king and even had a palace.

From 1898 to 1903, Peoria invited the world to the Peoria Corn Exposition.

It was on Globe Street, between Main Street and Hamilton Boulevard.

The centerpiece of the week long festival was the Corn Palace, a former church tabernacle that had been converted into an auditorium.

For the festival, inside and out, the corn palace was festooned with corn husks.

Inside corn, farmers might examine displays of implements or listen to lectures and cultivation.

Breakthroughs were reported in dispatches from newspaper scribes who come from as far away as New York City.

But outside the palace, the scene was described as arrival to Mardi Gras in New Orleans.

Block after block, visitors could traipse through street fairs with all sorts of entertainment.

Some was family friendly, bicycle races, corn husking matches, fireworks displays and a flower parade.

Carnival scenes might include jugglers, musicians, acrobats and aerialists.

Meantime, seedier entertainers fought for visitors money.

Slicks in suits offered shell games, an exotic dancer wiggled inside her tent.

A wild man grunted and heaved like a neanderthal and Muddy Mod, as she was called, well, she ate mud.

That first expo proved to be a rousing success, more popular than the state fair.

The expo got bigger and bigger for a few years, then crowds got bored and the auditorium started falling apart.

The palace was becoming a danger and a dump.

Civic leaders decided to tear it down.

But before they could make their first move, fire interceded, the blaze turned the palace into rubble and a memory.

(upbeat music) - [Julie] On "The Wild Side," we've brought you all kinds of creatures, cute, cuddly, even stinky ones.

This time we bring you an animal that has a bad reputation.

- And no offenses, you guys, but you actually look very scary.

Very, very, very scary!

- [Julie] The Turkey vulture.

- I'm trying not to let her get too close to me 'cause she's a little ornery and will try to pick out my glasses and stuff.

- [Julie] Anna Lynn from Wildlife Prairie Park introduced us to Moe, the 40 year old resident Turkey Vulture that has earned her status as an ornery bird, but also explained that her true nature is simply gross.

- Imagine you're a Turkey Vulture and you find something and you eat too much and you can't fly and you're kind of resting there, kind of digesting your food.

Along comes a predator like a coyote and you wanna get awake cause the coyote wants to eat you instead of that dead animal.

So what she will do is she will projectile vomit into that predator's face.

So they'll aim for the face because they have strong stomach acid and then they'll fly away and get away from that predator and then if that predator finishes eating whatever and leaves, she'll come back down and she will eat her vomit again because she spent all that time picking at it and eating.

They are a very important part of the environment because they do get rid of the gross stuff.

- [Julie] Most people know Turkey Vultures for their unusual diet because they only eat dead animals.

- The reason they don't have a lot of feathers on their head.

When they're eating a dead animal, they will get all the way in there and get all the good stuff out and it's just a lot easier to clean when you don't have a bunch of feathers on your head.

Just a little less cleaning.

- [Julie] Moe has these large nostrils in her beak in order to help her smell a dead animal from up to 10 miles away.

Then she can use her sharp hooked beak to dig into her dinner.

- If you can see, her feet are a bit lighter colored than her head.

I know you're getting close to me and that is because they poop on their feet to cool down.

(tape screeching) - [Host] Wait, wait, wait a minute.

So she's feeling hot, it's a hot summer day, she poops on her feet?

- Yeah, so birds cannot sweat and so they can pant kinda like dogs do.

Not all birds poop on their feet, but Turkey Vultures do and so a lot of times you'll see them out and about and they will have lighter colored feet.

- But, don't they scare you?

- And just gross you out the door?

- No, you do not.

- Tell the truth.

- Okay, yes, a little bit.

- [Julie] The next time you see a Turkey Vulture gliding around above you with their six foot wingspan, you can feel safe and rest assured that these interesting birds are on the job as nature's cleanup crew.

♪ Nature's cleanup crew ♪ Oh, yeah - My roasted mushroom crostini is an elegant appetizer that will wow your guests.

Crostini sounds fancy, but it's super easy to make.

All you need is a crusty baguette.

For the topping, I like to use a mixture of sliced cremini, button, oyster and shiitake mushrooms.

But before we roast them, we need to coat them.

I'm adding olive oil, minced garlic.

Ooo, get all that in there.

I love garlic, salt, pepper, fresh thyme.

I'll mix that up until it's good and coated.

The flavors of all these mushrooms really compliment each other for a wonderful earthy flavor.

Place the mushroom mixture into a sheet pan and spread them out evenly.

We'll roast the mushrooms in a 400 degree oven for about 12 to 14 minutes.

Now for the spread, I've already drained my ricotta mixture for about 15 minutes.

I'm adding some minced garlic, about one clove, some sliced fresh basil, oh, the smell of basil and garlic together, I just love it, and stirring it really enhances both of their flavors.

The bread slices just came out from under the broiler.

I brushed them with some olive oil and they're nice and golden brown.

Before we top them, I need to mix the arugula with the roasted mushrooms.

Let's give that a good mix.

Now I'm going to spread the ricotta cheese mixture right onto the crostini.

I'm gonna do a couple.

Oh, look at how creamy that is.

Now I'll top them with the mushrooms and arugula.

(upbeat music) Look at how beautiful and now for the final touch, a little bit of grated Parmesan.

These are creamy, crunchy and so tasty.

Serve these at your next gathering and watch them disappear.

- Those were some great stories, but we're always looking for new ideas.

So make sure you send those in to us.

- There's the email address on your screen.

Let us know what you'd like to see on the show and maybe next time you might be on... - "You Gotta See This."

(lively upbeat music) (lively upbeat music continues) (lively upbeat music continues)