Reagan said, Hey, guys, but guess what?

We've got a chance.

He was my fraternity circle of about 200 people.

Hospice communities of healthy environments.

Trust me, she lived in Traficant for four years.

I really felt for a lot of reasons I felt, but I didn't have the guts to stand.

in the late 1980s, Cathy Bailey and Michael Bonagura found chart topping success as two thirds of a trio.

Bailey in the boys.

Fast forward to today and their daughter, Alyssa Bonagura has joined the family business.

In addition to playing with her parents, Alyssa has carved out her own prominent career as a singer and songwriter.

We welcome Cathy Bailey, Michael Bonagura and Alyssa Bonagura The Conversations.

Thank you for being here.

Thanks for having us.

But let's start with mom and dad first.

So Bailey and the boys in the 1980s.

How did the band come about?

Well, we actually started in the seventies.

Mike and I have been together for 50 years now, married for 42.

Okay.

And ever since we met, we played music together.

And he introduced me to his friend Alan LeBoeuf, and we started this little trio, just acoustic all over the country.

And did national commercials.

Burger King, soft and dry, you name it.

We just did what we could do, right?

You know, to make a living.

And that's pretty much how we started.

We moved to Nashville in 1983, and we got signed in 1986 to RCA Records.

That's the Cinderella story.

But it was not you know, it was very difficult up to that point.

But that's in a nutshell.

Did did I read that Jeff Cook discovered you?

Okay.

He sure did.

Yeah.

And I played at the movies, The Hall.

It was it was called the Hall of Fame Motor Lodge.

But everyone in Nashville called it the Hall of Shame because once you got in there, you never got out.

Right.

We were playing five sets a night and.

No.

Nine days a week.

Yeah, nine days a week.

Okay.

And.

And they always got a really good crowd.

Right.

And, you know, and one thing that always came easy for the three of us was making music.

You know, we.

We played together.

We lived in Bermuda for two years.

I mean, we could we could definitely write a couple of chapters in a book.

Actually, we moved to Nashville from Birmingham.

That's right.

Okay.

Okay.

Yeah.

And so we were performing one night and it was really, really crowded.

And I thought I recognized a face that was sort of looking behind the bar from out in the hallway, but I wasn't sure.

And at the end of the night, it was Jeff Cook.

And he came up to us and he told us how much he loved what we were doing.

And he thought we were awesome.

I remember what he said was he goes, You know, that girl really plays guitar.

I mean, she doesn't just fake it.

She really plays.

And somebody gave me credit.

And so here's Jeff Cook from one of our favorite groups, Alabama.

And he's telling us how good we are.

And he goes, Are you going to be here tomorrow night?

And we said, Yeah.

And he goes, Great.

And that's all he said.

And we were on cloud nine.

And the next night came and before the show he came up with a cassette player, you know, one of those boom boxes, everything built in it right.

And a, and a yellow piece of paper with five songs on it.

And he goes, puts it down.

He goes, I'm going to press record.

Can you do these five songs I heard you do last night in order.

And we said, Well, sure, you know.

And so we did.

And by the end of the night, he said, I'm going to take this to the president of RCA Records.

He goes, If he doesn't sign it to the label, he goes, I'm starting my own label and putting you guys out.

Wow, that's confidence.

That's how we got signed.

Of course.

Jeff Cooke, as you mentioned, guitar player for Alabama and if I'm not mistaken, I believe spent some time here on the on the Florida Gulf Coast and.

Oh, yes and recently and yeah, you know, sweet, sweet man.

He was he was very I mean, he was just so helpful in our careers in the first few years, gave me a guitar amplifier and wanted to know if I needed different guitars on stage there.

They asked us to open up shows for them.

I mean, they couldn't be more gracious of of the class acting roster with a lot of really, really big stars and really nice people, you know?

Vince Gill, Clint Black, K.T.

Oslin, you know, all the while we were late eighties, they were like two years before us, but so we were the thing.

We were the new kids on the block, Restless Heart, right?

All those people.

That was a great time in country music.

It really was.

They called us the new breed of country.

Yeah.

And it was fun.

It was fun tunes.

Great songs.

Yeah.

Tell me tell me about that first hit.

Right.

So.

So you get signed with RCA Records and take it from there.

Well, let's say we made this record with Kyle lending, and I remember going into the conference room, the three of us, and when we first moved to Nashville, because we need to make money, and I was working during the day as an aerobics instructor and I was working at MCI Music Publishing.

And so I, like I didn't have time to go to the meeting for RCA, so I said, Well, I can't go today.

I said, How about tomorrow?

So we walked into the conference room and Joe was sitting maybe closer than you are to me, and I said, I can't do this.

You can't sit in front of me.

You're looking right down my mouth.

And he took out the contracts and he said, Sign it right now.

And that's pretty much how it got signed.

And we had most of the songs with with us to record, except the first single.

And Paul Davis was the co-producer for us.

And you might remember Paul from songs like I Go Crazy.

I do.

Oh my God, Incredible artist.

And he got shot in this mugging at the place we were playing.

It sounds really bad and it was bad, but he survived, and while he was surviving in the hospital, we broke a heart.

And that's how they.

Oh, hold on just a little bit longer.

And the irony is, you know, record labels have a strict schedule.

I mean, they're big corporations, obviously, And Paul was on about a six month recovery.

So we went into the label and we said we're we're not going to meet our recording schedule because we're going to wait for Paul.

And they said, we feel really bad.

He's in the hospital, but he can do the next one because we could keep you on schedule.

And we said, No, we really I mean, we didn't know any better.

We didn't realize, you know, well then see around later, you know, but we're just it's just in our hearts.

We felt like that was the wrong thing to do.

And right while we were waiting for him to recover, we happened to write this song called Oh Heart, and we never in a million years thought it would be as big a single as it was.

And and the record label didn't expect it to be a hit.

They just sort of put it out because we were off schedule.

They the album wasn't finished yet.

We had just recorded this song and they put it out there and nothing was happening at all.

And Cathy's father was working in Japan and he said, Why don't you come?

You know, why don't you come visit Mom and I in Japan while you're doing Nashville?

And so so we got on a plane, went to Japan, we got off the plane and we got a phone call and it was our and our person, Mary Morton at RCA.

And she said, Get home.

And we said, well, she goes, you have a hit record.

She goes, Oh, what is unexpected by everyone's years?

But it's a hit.

It just went top ten.

So we flew right home and started doing a radio tour.

Like, Can you grab that guitar kit?

Can you just do a little bit?

I don't know.

I'll put you on the spot here, but we could do that one in our sleep.

Do it.

Oh, hold on just a little longer.

Oh, oh, oh, oh.

If you could be wrong.

Oh, honey, it won't work.

And, oh, hard.

Awesome.

Something like that.

Who are you to step to learn all the harmonies growing up?

I bet.

What was it like now?

What was it like growing up with Mom and Dad?

I'm sure you must have been on tour busses with them going around the country.

What was that like?

It was awesome.

I mean, you you got pregnant after the first single.

During the first during the first single.

I don't want to know the details, but like I know I was three weeks old on the bus, like, jeez, I have a hit song and I'm pregnant.

Wow.

Okay.

I'm going to go with it.

Yeah, Yeah.

Let's just say it was an exciting time.

I was.

I was three weeks old on the bus and traveled my whole life.

My whole upbringing was, you know, waking up in a different city and being at a fair and meeting new people.

And I watched them sing every night and watch my mom do her makeup in the bus.

You know, in the little bus where row from the couch on the bus.

Oh, my God, You can't go that way anywhere.

We have to.

Yeah.

So I just.

I just always watched them do what they did, and they were so lovely.

My parents are, like, the nicest people you ever meet, and they surrounded themselves with really great people, too.

Yeah, but it's true.

I mean, they surrounded themselves with just class people all the time.

And.

And so I was really lucky as a kid.

I got to grow up in a healthy environment on the road.

I don't think a lot of, you know, babies that are tour babies get to say that.

But country music is such a family business, you know?

And so you meet people like Vince Gill and you meet Kenny Rogers and, you know, as a kid, you don't really know who they are.

I mean, you see them as like just your friends.

And then as I got older, I was like, wow, I was really around some incredible human beings growing up and what what a way to learn how to how to be an artist and how to be a, you know, a businesswoman positions.

She was around so many musicians on the bus.

Yeah, they would teach her everything.

Here.

Take my drum pad.

Yeah, you know, Yeah.

Take the bass guitar.

She was three years old and we were touring with Kenny Rogers and we were backstage and.

And somehow Alicia was going to take a picture with Kenny, and so Kenny put it right on his lap, and he did one of those, and he was around, and she's over here.

And Kenny turned to a singers.

25 years from now, she's going to look back at this picture and go, Is that Santa Claus?

What was that's so funny was I have to ask you a question, the two of you, a question as parents.

So I got to see you perform some last night.

What's it like her her career?

I mean, to give you an idea, she just sang before a huge audience in in London, the national anthem for the for the Jaguars and Atlanta Falcons football game.

So a huge audience for that.

By the way.

You did a phenomenal job with that.

But what's it like as parents forget your musicians yourself, just as parents, as you watch her develop?

Nerve wracking.

It's nerve wracking and honored.

I know.

We're so honored to watch her and to watch her grow, but to stand beside her as a musician and an artist, she's phenomenal to us.

I mean, really.

I mean, I mean, it's it's amazing when the parents learn from the child.

We've been we've been learning from her, her music is just it's so it's all your instincts have just they're just perfect.

Well, I got them from these guys, but I learned everything I know from them.

You know, when I was a kid, I was like, I was obsessed with every musical instrument because, you know, being backstage or being on stage, that was my playground.

It was a different.

Different.

No friends, just it was a different life for me, you know?

And and so if there was guitars around or if there was a piano, if there was drums on stage, I would just pick it up and try and play it and that was that was how I played as a kid.

Yes.

As she goes, will teach me how to play guitar.

And I'm like, Now, all right, now let's you know how to do this and this.

It's so well that actually I'm so I'm so glad that she did that now because I learned how to play guitar.

I play in all open tunings like, like Joni Mitchell.

I grew up listening to Joni Mitchell.

Thanks to Mom, she was like, You got to listen to this record Blue.

It's going to change your life.

And so we would be driving through, you know, the hills of California in the bus, and I'd be listening to Joni Mitchell and and and trying to figure out how to play guitar.

She was like, If you can get the rhythm down with your right hand, then I'll start teaching you your left hand, which is all the chords, you know.

And when you play a guitar in just standard tuning open, it sounds terrible because you've got it.

You have to create a chord.

So I would go to the piano and I'd create a chord, and then I would tune the guitar to the piano.

And so I did all open tunings so I could at least just try and figure out how to play, you know, a little something for.

Yeah, no, I mean, but this all Joni Mitchell, you know, but I think when it's opened like that, to me, it sounded prettier.

So as a kid, when I was trying to learn how to play, I did Amazing Grace.

How sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost.

But now I'm.

I was blind.

But now you know, it sounds so much prettier and open tuning.

So anyway, I'm glad that you didn't teach me the normal way because we were playing.

And it also is like it's actually given me the drive, I think, to be my own artist, to do things a different way in my own way, because I got to grow up in the music business and watched them with managers and business manager and record labels and, you know, backstage on stage, you know, with cameras.

And so I just kind of I was like a sponge, you know, you still want to do it.

I'm like, serious.

And what about that balance?

And we did set up stereo speakers and by the time she was six month old, she had heard Jimi Hendrix, Electric Ladyland 43 times.

And I just I just want to sing that out there.

But the flashback to 1990 where we're touring with George Strait and we got this huge tour with him like almost 300 dates and a year and a half.

I mean, and Alyssa was just turned two years old and we did a show with with George opening night.

The second night we had we hadn't met him yet.

The second night he came up to us right before we went on stage and it was at the Greek Theater and literally we were just walking on the stage.

Alyssa was with was with her grandma and grandma was holding her and George came up, introduced himself and said, Oh, this is this is your your, your daughter.

And he and he took her and she started crying.

And he got sort of like, oh, and he put her down on that.

He put her down on the ground.

And he turned to us and he said, It's been a long time since a girl cried when I tried to, Oh, you know, and and then Alyssa wandered off, but we were so starstruck, we didn't even know it.

So Alyssa wandered off onto the stage.

Of course, the curtains are closed.

Well, she had been hanging out with the drummer, so she's learning how to play drums.

So no one's on stage yet except Alyssa sitting on the drums and she's got the sticks and it's a end stage.

So we're talking to George Strait, so we totally miss our cue.

Ladies and gentlemen, Bailey and the boys, the curtains open up in who's sitting on the drums.

The only person on the stage is Alyssa, and she's got drumsticks and she's two years old and the crowd is out there.

We're all running.

It's chattering.

So the next morning, George Strait's manager, Irv Woolsey, he walks out of the hotel and he does one of these, and he's got this really ugly look on his face.

And he points to George's bus.

I mean, has said a word.

So we go up, we sit down and we think, what's the matter?

And he goes, you know, we just played the most important venue in America.

He said, And George didn't get any press.

And he goes, You didn't get any press.

And he took the newspaper and he threw it down.

And there's a picture of Alyssa on the drums, and it says, Nonunion plays.

Grant Oh, it was the first time in the history of the Greek theater that a nonunion member played the Greek theater.

Oh, you've got that for you.

So we knew she was destined for that point.

Oh, my.

Well, I'm getting I've got about 10 minutes left in the show, so I want to make sure I get Jimmy.

And we talked about you're going to play us out of the end with a song you have a pick another song for me.

Give it.

Give me 30, 40, 50 seconds of a of a song that you want the audience to to hear something that kind of encapsulates what you're all about as an artist.

Well, if it's no know, she says, You know?

So I went to college in in Liverpool, England.

I was studying music production there.

And so after high school I was writing songs at 16 really, and was in all the talent shows, you know, I'd just sing songs at ten and I started the dance team.

I was very I just loved performing, you know, and, and I really wanted to learn how to record music.

And so Dad and I started kind of building a studio above our garage, and he was collecting gear from different people.

We had amazing microphone, all these amazing compressors.

And and we were freezing in the winter, you know, upstairs with the heat in the attic of this place, just like trying to record.

And he got me this mini, this mini disk recorder that was like an eight track.

And I learned how to harmonize.

And, you know, I had the best teachers for harmony over here, but I would learn how to layer my vocals and layer guitar.

And I just became obsessed with music production.

And so I went to college in Liverpool at the Paul McCartney school, the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts and.

And Paul McCartney gave you your ticket?

He did.

That was yeah, very, very cool for us.

We're like, Yeah, but it was so it was such a it was a tough time being there because when I was an I'm an only child, I was 18 years old, you know, on my way to this brand new country.

And and it was the best three years of my life.

Like I met some of the most amazing people and I got to play for the queen.

We we did this insane show for the queen, the queen's royal variety show at this amazing arch called Pete Wiley in the mighty Way.

I joined his band as a guitar player.

And and I just started writing and playing as much as I could.

My mom always said, you know, play everywhere.

If you get asked to play, just go play.

It doesn't matter if there's one person, ten bucks, just just get up and play.

And so so anyway, so I've been going back and forth a lot from the UK ever since then.

And when I came back to America, I got a job at a publishing company writing songs and they started, you know, having me write songs for other artists.

But while I was in London, I, I wrote this song that I had never finished is called I Make My Own Sunshine.

And it was because it rained all the time in Liverpool.

And I just was, you know, I realized that my parents are big inspiration in this too.

But I truly believe that we create our own happiness.

You know, we wake up every day and it's such a gift to to wake up, to breathe, you know, and to see the sunshine and also to see the clouds, you know, and you have to create your own sunshine, I think, a lot in life.

So I wrote this song and it was my first ever hit, I guess you could say, but it was on a nationwide Lowe's commercial in America.

And then a few years later, I was playing a show in Nashville and Steven Tyler was there from Aerosmith, and he was making a country record at the time.

And he came up to me after the show and he was like, Melissa, you have to send me that.

I make my own Sunshine song.

I was like, Okay, okay.

So I sent him the song and, you know, fast forward like a couple months later.

I never heard from him, but I was in I was back in London, We were on tour and I got a call from an unknown number and it was Steven Tyler, and he was like, Hey, listen, I'm in Maui right now, and I just recorded ukuleles on on.

I make my on Sunshine.

It's going to be on my new country record now.

So anyway, I guess I just I'm so grateful that that song was able to touch people and in a positive way.

I think music is such an important healing thing in all of our lives.

So on to just over a 49 ukulele.

Yeah, it don't matter if it's rain, nothing can't face honey, moon, sunshine.

And if you think you can break me video crazy honey Paulsen's song Who Ooh hoo and sunshine.

It's awesome.

That's all I'm getting We we can go on for another hour or so running short on time.

But I cannot let this show in without you do.

And just a little bit about the guitar.

Oh, can you do it?

Can you.

Can you give me just a minute?

Because there's a lot of guitar pickers that watch the works on the time.

And we talk about the songwriters that we have on the program.

I love this.

All right.

Just tell me real quick story.

So glad I mentioned.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You know, and and since I'm not going to play the entire song, you'll have to come to one of our shows.

Actually, I had the privilege of seeing you do it last night.

I was.

I was in college earning an extra buck, playing in a dive bar.

Really?

And there was one person in there and he wouldn't let me sing.

He kept heckling me and heckling me.

So I sat down and bought him a beer and he said he used to play guitar.

And I said, What do you mean you used to play?

Because, well, I broke it over somebody's head.

And I'm thinking, okay, this is getting a little strange.

And I said, What kind of guitars?

And he goes, It was the 1953 Martin Well, anyone who knows the 1953.

MARTIN is cherished.

So I said, what would you do with it?

I'm thinking, you know, I just want to put a splinter under my pillow, you know, And he goes, Why do you want to buy it?

And I looked at him and said, Do you still have it?

He goes, Well, I might.

He goes, Give me 15 bucks and I'll tell you where it is.

Wow.

And I took the bait.

I gave him the 15 bucks.

He told me where it was.

It was there.

I took it to the Martin Company.

They got the original man who made it in 1953.

He was still there.

He was 90 something years old.

They repaired the entire guitar, a hole in the front and a hole in the back.

And they sent it back to me and they refused to charge me for it.

Wow.

And the letter they put in there said it was good to help an old friend.

That's great.

Yeah.

Do me 60 seconds.

I was playing in a bar.

There's no one there.

Said for an old man.

Kept saying out loud in the middle of my song.

I used to be a guitar man.

It was more than acting.

So I took a break, sat down and bought the beer.

So used to play.

I heard you say I was trying to sing up there No strings and Sam, so good, just like you knew they would.

You don't have to be a star to play guitar.

You played what's in your throat.

You don't have to be a star to play.

So you play what's in your heart.

That's awesome.

I love that, actually.

Yes, I absolutely love it.

Okay, Alyssa, where can we find you if we want to know all things Alyssa.

Alyssa Bonagura dot com as, say, bioenergy or a dot com.

I'm on Instagram, Facebook and I run all of my own socials.

So people reach out to me all the time and I love hearing from you guys.

So definitely semi message and yeah, I've got a new single out called on it that I wrote with Jeffrey Steele and Al Anderson and it's a really fun play that and play us out Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And a special thanks to our friends at the Pensacola Beach Songwriters Festival for help putting this all this awesome course you guys are playing.

And I need to mention that you're going to be playing on the Studio Amped program that we have and produce here at SRT Television.

So folks will be able to see the full versions of your songs.

So looking forward to looking forward to that.

And if what I saw last night is any indication, it's going to be a can't miss situation tonight on Studio AMP.

And by the way, you can see this particular interview and many more of our conversations online sorry, mortgage conversations as well as on the PBS video app.

I'm Jeff Weeks.

Thank you so very much for watching the program.

We hope you enjoyed it and we really hope you enjoy Alyssa as she plays it out because she's on it.

Yeah.

And it's going to stop me when I want to.

And I want you right now.

I'm going to give it to my baby.

Baby, No way, No how.

Oh, you know I'm on a show.

Oh, you know I want to kiss you is all that.

I mean, wherever you are, it's where I need to be.

And how I'm on it.

If there's a damn thing.

Even you best people, even if it gets you.

Stop.

Yeah, I'm in it.

I'll write it.

I want it.

Hey, I'm on it.