(light music) (birds chirping) (footsteps thudding) - I mean, I started, you know, playing drums when I was five years old.

You know, never had a job.

You know, I've been a musician my, you know, my entire life.

(footsteps thudding) (mellow rock music) I got started in music, my parents got a radio, I think it was a radio, and I can still remember where it was sitting, it was right underneath a window, and it was kinda the first time I kinda heard music, and something, I don't know something happened, you know, and something went off, or I don't know what happened, but from then on, I was focused on music.

♪ I don't feel I belong here ♪ ♪ It's something I need to do ♪ You know, my dad was listening to, you know, all this weird kind of country music stuff that's something like a, you would see on a rawhide show or something like that.

And I'm listening to this stuff in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, it's a very small town.

I mean, it still is a small town.

♪ Moving around ♪ You know, population 10,000.

I think it's probably less than that now.

You know, there's not much there.

People don't, don't normally, you know, move out of there.

You know, you're born there and you die there.

And know, when we're kids, you know, we're running out through the neighborhood, and Ma will go, "Okay, just be home by 5:00."

So we'd be, you know, running through the neighborhood and I heard these drums coming out of this basement window of this one house.

And so I go down there and I, like, I peek in the window, and there's this guy sitting there and he's got a Red Sparkle drum set, and he's got a record player sitting right behind him, and he's, you know, playing away to, you know, something.

And I'm sitting there watching this guy, and I go, wow, that's pretty cool.

And he sees me and so he waves me in.

His name was Anthony, and he had Down syndrome, he had a whole mouthful of braces.

And this guy was the sweetest guy, and he's the one that kinda taught me how to play drums.

And I would go over there every day.

I remember, you know, he goes, "Well, you know, my mother's taking me," you know, "We're going away on a visit next week, but you're welcome to just sneak in that window and come in here and play, you know, all by yourself," you know, and you know, "When I'm gone."

So that's what I did, and I went in there every day.

I knew what I was meant to do at such an early age.

I can't even remember, you know, how young I was, but I remember just, well, how come I have to learn calculus?

Why do I, you know, I'm not gonna need that, so I just blew everything off.

I just, you know, barely made it through high school.

Somehow I got in a band and started playing.

We were rehearsing every day and we moved into this house in Dickeyville, Wisconsin, and it was an old farmhouse in the middle of nowhere.

We'd practice every day, all day, writing, we had a little, you know, reel to reel tape machine, and that started it.

But I was really focused on drums, but I was playing more and more guitar, and starting to kind of write songs in my teens.

And, but it was very difficult because, you know, when you're playing in bands, you know, the guitar player and the lead singer, they don't wanna hear from a drummer that's writing songs.

You know, you shut up and do your job, just you know, play the beats and don't say anything else, and don't bother us, we're gonna write the songs.

It was very frustrating.

(solemn music) (upbeat rock music) You know, Tokyo Rose, you know, was a very popular band, and we made a lot of money.

Had a huge show.

I mean, we had a big crew and we, you know, carried our own lights, and our own PA. We had a 26 foot truck.

And you know, nowadays, everyone just carries all their stage gear around in a like, a little trailer and all that stuff.

We carried everything.

But the band made a lot of money.

Most of it went to the expenses of the crew, and road expenses, and you know, blowing out final bulbs and blowing speakers out, and so we still didn't make any money.

(upbeat music) A Flock of Seagulls thing was probably the first, you know, kind of big thing in, but you know, they asked me to play on one record, which is really just a single that had different versions of it on it.

So I flew up to New York, and you know, I recorded the drums on this thing.

And so they, they go, "Well, we're getting ready to go out and do a tour.

You wanna go?

You wanna be the drummer?

It's like a three and a half week tour."

I go, "Sure."

That was back in the day, you know.

They sent me these cassette tapes.

I learned them from a cassette tape, and this is how the set goes.

The first time I even practiced with those guys was soundcheck at The Jetty.

That was the first gig I ever did with 'em, and that was the first time I met 'em, was at soundcheck.

Never played with 'em, never did anything.

So I went along, did that, the three weeks was done.

He goes, "Well, we're gonna do this tour of, you know, kind of small arena, you know, houses, you know, with Devo and Thompson Twins, and you know, all this stuff.

You know, you up for that?"

I go, "Yeah.

I mean, as long as we keep going up, I'm in, but if we start going down, I'm out."

It was fun, though.

You know, the band was really good.

I sold my recording studio to The Neptunes.

I built this, you know, kind of home studio out, and had to just kind of start testing everything.

And I had some songs, ideas that I've been working on, so I started, you know, recording songs from start to finish and making sure everything worked out.

And 10 songs came pretty easy.

And that was, well, let's see, what am I on?

I'm working on my 12th album now, so I've been cranking them out.

♪ The patience over ♪ But it's been about, it's been about one a year.

(mellow rock music) I like the process of creating something from nothing.

You know, that's what I like, you know, coming up with an idea and then having this whole song that people can hear and get emotional about, and either love it or hate it, or something like that.

I mean, at least it causes, you know, emotion and people to feel something.

Everything is kind of like my point of view on the way I see things, you know, according to my life, my relationship with my friends, and my wife, and my children.

And I'm telling the story of, kind of my life.

And you know, I told my kids, you know, I go, "If you really wanna, you know, know who I am, listen to my music and listen to the lyrics, for Christ's sake."

Not just, you know, 'cause the lyrics are the most important part of it as far as I'm concerned.

I want people 100 years from now to be able to see what I was doing with my life instead of just blowing it away when no one will care or remember any of it.

I don't hear the kind of music I wanna hear, so I'm playing what I wanna hear.

At the end of the day, that's always been my thing, you know, every single one of my records sounds great.

You know, you may hate the kind of music it is, but it sounds great.

That's a fact.

(light music) I like big choruses.

And you know, so it's a nice lift, and so the songs go like this, and they go like this, and they go like this.

Where a lot of 'em, you know, they just chug along like this until you can't stand it anymore and you flip to the next one.

♪ Maybe one day we find each other ♪ ♪ And the stars align ♪ ♪ Maybe one day ♪ ♪ Maybe someday, I'll love ♪ ♪ And on that day ♪ You know, I'm asking these questions, you know, in my music, that I would ask a therapist.

And I've never gone to a therapist, but I'm sure my family would say I need one desperately.

It's almost like I'm asking advice, you know, "Well, should I do that?"

And then I go, "Well, yeah, well, I don't know.

Let's think about that."

A lot of it is kind of therapeutic in a way, you know, for me, which I just kinda just realized as I'm talking about it right now.

(mellow rock music) I like the old ways of having, you know, having a real drummer play on this stuff and actually play the guitar parts myself and have some, you know, a little bit of timing issues to give the thing a little bit of a personality, and not pitch correct absolutely everything to make it sound perfect.

♪ Maybe someday I'll love ♪ You want that emotion in life, and the, you know, the kind of keeping it real aspect of it.

♪ Maybe one day ♪ (mellow rock music) I've had a pretty good run with, you know, the creative spurt, you know, being able to create something new all the time.

You know, I have a, you know, an interesting relationship with music because it's, a lot of times I can't stand it, and but then sometimes I know it's the reason that I'm here and the reason that I'm supposed to be doing this thing.

Music chooses certain people, and it's chosen me.

(mellow rock music)