Podcast:
Randy Spencer: Alice Cooper, Music, Faith & Community | Cross Examined Ep. 4

00:00:00.400 Welcome to Cross-examine with the
00:00:01.839 Gerbers, where we like to bring our
00:00:04.080 faith, our law practice, our family, and
00:00:06.480 our ministry all together in one place.
00:00:08.480 I’m Ken Gerber, and this is my wife,
00:00:10.240 Megan Gerber.
00:00:11.280 >> Hi.
00:00:15.599 >> And we have Randy Spencer with us today.
00:00:18.560 >> How are you all?
00:00:19.439 >> We’re great. How are you doing?
00:00:21.119 >> Great. It’s a pleasure to be here.
00:00:22.640 >> Yeah, we’re so excited to have you on
00:00:24.400 the podcast. you kind of like summarize
00:00:28.240 everything, you know, your faith, your
00:00:30.320 music, your career. We just are so
00:00:32.719 blessed to have you here and pick your
00:00:34.800 brain and get some good stuff for the
00:00:36.719 podcast.
00:00:37.440 >> It’s a weird It’s a weird brain. I don’t
00:00:39.120 know how much picking you all want to
00:00:40.559 do, but you’re welcome to try.
00:00:42.719 >> Well, so Randy, you are uh with Alice
00:00:45.440 Cooper’s Solid Rock and you are the head
00:00:50.000 of community development with them. I do
00:00:52.079 partnerships, fundraising, a lot of
00:00:54.320 different projects, programming for
00:00:57.039 Alice’s ministry uh in Phoenix, Goodyear
00:01:00.559 and Mesa. We’ve been a 501c3 for 30
00:01:03.840 years and we’re an outreach to
00:01:06.080 teenagers. We have three teen teen
00:01:08.640 centers in the valley.
00:01:09.840 >> Fantastic. Fantastic. And you’ve
00:01:11.920 actually been in the music industry for
00:01:13.760 a lot of years before coming on board
00:01:15.920 with Alice as well. my whole for my
00:01:17.680 whole career. I started writing for
00:01:19.759 Billboard magazine when I was 18. Grew
00:01:22.080 up here in Phoenix and have worked with
00:01:24.880 a variety of different people. People
00:01:27.280 like Jason Newstead and Metallica and
00:01:29.520 Brian sets the stray cats and been a
00:01:32.720 part of working on projects for Tailor
00:01:35.119 Made and Hilton for music supervision to
00:01:37.840 get songs in their commercials and been
00:01:40.320 blessed with a really good resume.
00:01:41.840 >> Yeah. Fantastic. and we’ve known each
00:01:43.280 other for a little while and it seems
00:01:44.400 like every time we talk there’s really
00:01:48.079 no shortage of people in the music
00:01:52.000 industry that you know.
00:01:54.000 >> I know a few. I know a few. But that
00:01:57.119 just comes with hustle, right?
00:01:58.560 >> Sure. And then like when you work hard
00:02:00.560 and you apply yourself like you guys
00:02:02.560 have to build your business, you know,
00:02:04.960 like in 18 years old, 15 years old, I
00:02:08.479 was on airplanes and trying to network
00:02:10.479 and meet people and I’m still on that
00:02:12.720 path, you know, at a later age in life
00:02:15.200 of like I want to meet people and
00:02:16.640 network and build my contacts.
00:02:18.080 >> And that’s what I was going to ask you.
00:02:19.280 You know, there’s a lot of people, you
00:02:20.720 know, I was reading something today
00:02:22.239 where the is it Gen Z? I don’t know. I’m
00:02:26.000 really bad with the age bracket. But the
00:02:28.080 kids that are like in their
00:02:29.599 >> semi lazy generation.
00:02:31.360 >> Yeah. They’re they’re wanting to just be
00:02:33.280 like, "Oh, I want to be an influencer or
00:02:35.040 oh, I want to do these things that are
00:02:36.800 glamorous."
00:02:38.319 But what do they have to do to get
00:02:40.239 there? I mean, we know that you have to
00:02:42.400 have grit. But coming from you, you
00:02:44.080 know, I’m sure there’s people out there
00:02:45.280 saying, "Hey, how did you make those
00:02:46.800 connections at such a young age? What is
00:02:49.519 the key?"
00:02:50.560 >> Well, I to talk about a couple
00:02:52.000 principles, but that’s okay. Yeah,
00:02:53.599 >> I believe the Bible says in Matthew 7:7
00:02:56.160 that if you ask and seek and knock,
00:02:59.120 those doors will be open unto you. But
00:03:01.120 you got to ask and you got to seek. You
00:03:02.640 got to put in the grit and you got to
00:03:04.159 put in the hustle. And the second thing
00:03:05.920 is, you’re right, everybody wants to
00:03:07.440 rock into the moon now that’s younger
00:03:09.519 and become an influencer. And that’s a
00:03:12.560 great dream to pursue, but what a lot of
00:03:14.480 people don’t realize is a lot of those
00:03:16.080 influencers have Harvard and Yale
00:03:18.239 degrees.
00:03:19.120 >> Oh wow. I didn’t know that. They have
00:03:20.480 been working hard at building their
00:03:22.239 businesses for 20 30 years
00:03:25.040 >> and they’re don’t become like this mega
00:03:27.680 mega mega thing overnight and behind the
00:03:29.840 scenes they have to put in a lot of
00:03:31.920 money to become Mr. Beast if you will
00:03:34.159 >> and just because you know a lot of
00:03:36.159 people and you love what you do doesn’t
00:03:37.920 mean you earn a ton of money. Like our
00:03:40.319 friend AD who’s you know Jack’s drummer
00:03:42.720 and he does a lot of work. He loves what
00:03:44.720 he does, but he’s like, I don’t make a
00:03:46.159 ton of money. Just, you know, I want to
00:03:49.200 let that audience know just because you
00:03:52.319 know a bunch of people, you have to pick
00:03:54.080 what’s important to you. Is it being a
00:03:55.840 billionaire or is it meeting a bunch of
00:03:57.680 people or both?
00:03:58.560 >> Well, there’s few people in sports or
00:04:00.720 music or the arts or any career that are
00:04:03.519 extremely successful. 93% of them in the
00:04:07.120 music industry are not even at the major
00:04:10.080 level. So, you know, for example, like
00:04:12.959 on iTunes and Apple Music, etc. 93% of
00:04:16.560 music is sold as singles.
00:04:18.959 >> Yeah.
00:04:19.519 >> And only 7% of those people become
00:04:22.479 Yellow Card, Pearl Jam, Beyonce, and
00:04:25.440 those are the people that are getting
00:04:26.800 millions and millions of dollars, you
00:04:28.880 know, that are spent independently. And
00:04:30.720 what a lot of people people don’t also
00:04:32.639 understand is behind the scenes, you
00:04:34.639 might have some of these upandcomers who
00:04:36.880 become really popular, but the major
00:04:38.880 labels behind the scenes are dishing out
00:04:41.120 the money and the record that might come
00:04:43.440 out on a small independent label, but
00:04:45.520 that label might still be owned by Sony
00:04:47.440 or Warner. And behind the scenes, Sony
00:04:49.600 Warner is funding that indie label for
00:04:52.000 that indie band to become successful
00:04:54.320 that you think is independent and on
00:04:56.320 their own. and then two years later then
00:04:58.240 they’re on Warner Brothers because they
00:04:59.680 want to have that perception that
00:05:01.280 they’re doing it on their own, but
00:05:02.400 they’re really not. They’re have a lot
00:05:04.000 of behind the-scenes Wizard of Oz
00:05:05.919 people.
00:05:06.479 >> And it’s interesting because Gordon, our
00:05:08.960 friend who does Hope and Numbers, he
00:05:10.800 sent me a verse yesterday and I could
00:05:12.479 pull it up. I’m really bad at memorizing
00:05:14.400 these things. He did say memorize it.
00:05:16.800 But it it’s something about behind the
00:05:18.800 scenes people are what make a lot of
00:05:21.360 things happen that people don’t even
00:05:23.520 understand how hard they work. It’s not
00:05:26.080 always that person right up front like
00:05:28.000 >> well look at the field that you’re in. I
00:05:29.759 mean behind the scenes is so important
00:05:31.680 with SEO and billboards and radio
00:05:35.199 marketing and you know it’s such an
00:05:37.520 aggressive competitive industry the
00:05:39.520 field that you’re in in injury law and
00:05:42.320 and law but it’s the same thing with
00:05:44.080 behind the scenes you know with music
00:05:46.560 and you have to put in a lot of money
00:05:49.039 out there to get people to become really
00:05:51.440 successful. rarity do you have a very um
00:05:54.880 organic independent artist that really
00:05:57.120 rises to the top.
00:05:58.960 >> Yeah, that actually makes a lot of
00:06:00.560 sense.
00:06:01.680 >> And you’ve you’ve had some experience
00:06:03.840 managing some of those artists that have
00:06:05.840 had uh pretty good shots at it. You want
00:06:07.759 to talk about some of those? We were
00:06:08.960 talking earlier about your involvement
00:06:10.639 with some of the the Christian artists
00:06:13.199 like POD. I have. So I started my
00:06:16.000 career, you know, working in mainstream
00:06:17.759 as well as Christian music. But I’ve
00:06:19.919 managed a variety of people over the
00:06:22.080 years. People like Michael Sweet, the
00:06:23.759 singer Striper. I’ve managed Mark Bird,
00:06:26.400 who wrote a song called God of Wonders
00:06:28.080 that was very successful with the record
00:06:30.479 City and the Hill. We sold 2 million
00:06:32.560 records of that. I’ve managed people
00:06:34.479 like Brian Settzer of the Straight Cats.
00:06:36.479 Jason Newstead of Metallica, Marcus
00:06:39.039 Curiel of POD, a very avanguard famous
00:06:42.240 band called the Butthole Surfers. Yeah,
00:06:43.919 I’ve heard of them.
00:06:45.039 >> They have a lot of stories.
00:06:46.479 >> Your playlist must be very
00:06:49.440 >> very wide range.
00:06:50.960 >> I I love music and I hate music, right?
00:06:53.759 I really have a hybrid of it. Um I need
00:06:56.160 a break from it sometimes because I’ve
00:06:57.680 been around it so much. But I listen to
00:07:00.080 everything from Paul Simon to Cuban
00:07:02.400 music to Chavevel, you know, Frank
00:07:04.880 Sinatra. I just think that music all
00:07:07.120 across the board is just is great and
00:07:09.039 whatever you’re in the mood for at that
00:07:11.039 moment. But I love like Brazilian music
00:07:13.120 and Oh, do you Paul Simon and stuff like
00:07:15.199 that? Everyone often thinks because I’ve
00:07:17.280 worked with a lot of hard rock, that’s
00:07:18.720 all I listen to. And I never want to put
00:07:21.120 myself just in one box, right?
00:07:22.880 >> Did you ever meet Paul Simon?
00:07:24.400 >> I never met Paul Simon, but gosh, I
00:07:26.560 never even seen him live, which is weird
00:07:28.560 because the Who is my favorite band?
00:07:30.800 Paul Simon’s probably one of my favorite
00:07:32.400 artists and I’ve never seen either of
00:07:34.319 them.
00:07:34.880 >> So, you’ve been around so many famous
00:07:36.479 people. Is there anyone that if you were
00:07:38.319 to meet today that you’d get geeked out
00:07:40.240 and be like, "Oh my gosh, I get to meet
00:07:42.479 you."
00:07:43.199 >> Uh, well, when I met Rush years ago,
00:07:45.039 that was really humbling and enamoring.
00:07:46.880 And I’ve gotten to work with Alex Lifson
00:07:48.960 a little bit with the charity with Alice
00:07:50.560 Cooper. Um, and I’ve seen see his
00:07:52.960 philanthropic side and that’s pretty
00:07:55.280 amazing. But when I met Rush a few times
00:07:57.280 when I was in my mid20s, late 20s
00:07:59.680 because I grew up listening to them in
00:08:01.759 high school, that was pretty
00:08:03.199 intimidating and that was definitely a a
00:08:05.440 geek moment for me.
00:08:06.720 >> Oh, sure.
00:08:07.680 >> Probably the most inspiring was meeting
00:08:09.919 Cardinal Santana
00:08:11.440 >> really.
00:08:11.919 >> And just spending time with him was like
00:08:14.240 hanging with your great uncle.
00:08:15.599 >> Is that right?
00:08:16.160 >> Or something. But he was so humble and
00:08:18.160 such a focused man of faith and it was
00:08:21.199 really a privilege to be able to spend
00:08:22.720 an evening with him.
00:08:24.080 >> I love that. Well, and I was going to
00:08:25.520 ask you with with all the involvement in
00:08:27.680 the music music industry that you’ve
00:08:29.599 had, you know, we’ve talked before just
00:08:31.759 with our little bit of of exposure to
00:08:33.919 it, it’s it’s kind of a cutthroat world
00:08:36.640 and and for being a man of faith, how
00:08:38.958 does that play in? How does that work
00:08:40.958 through the years?
00:08:41.919 >> Yeah. Well, God’s called us to be a
00:08:43.360 light in the darkness. He’s called us to
00:08:44.959 be the salt in the earth. And he’s also
00:08:46.959 said you could be in the world but not
00:08:49.120 of the world. And my heart has always
00:08:50.959 been, you know, cuz I didn’t personally
00:08:52.880 grow up in church and we can talk a
00:08:55.279 little bit maybe about my life story of
00:08:57.040 conversion.
00:08:57.440 >> Yeah, we’d love that
00:08:58.160 >> if you want, but I didn’t really grow up
00:08:59.680 in church. So, I wanted to be able to
00:09:01.120 when I became a Christian
00:09:02.720 >> and worked in the music industry, I
00:09:05.120 wanted to work mostly in the mainstream
00:09:06.720 industry because I wanted to view my
00:09:08.959 calling as everywhere I go, I want to be
00:09:11.360 a light and I want to tell people the
00:09:13.040 most important thing. Fantastic. You
00:09:14.720 know, that’s in my life is is is my walk
00:09:17.680 with Jesus. and we would love to hear
00:09:19.680 your testimony if you’d like to share it
00:09:21.360 with us. Uh well my testimony I’ll give
00:09:23.440 you the really brief version. Okay. I
00:09:26.160 grew up in a Jewish uh background with
00:09:29.200 Judaism being a title and never went to
00:09:31.360 synagogue or bar mitzvah and I really
00:09:34.160 yearned to know God and didn’t really
00:09:36.640 have any spiritual direction and really
00:09:39.760 just got confused and dark and as a
00:09:42.560 young kid really just cried out to God
00:09:44.480 and hoped that he was real and always
00:09:47.839 wondered you know like in school like
00:09:50.800 you know kids would say on Monday
00:09:52.399 morning I went to catechism or I went to
00:09:54.399 synagogue or I went church and even the
00:09:56.560 Jehovah’s Witnesses had nothing because
00:09:58.560 they told me they did something over the
00:10:00.480 weekend, but they really had some kind
00:10:02.560 of a purpose and I didn’t really have
00:10:04.560 that purpose or direction, you know,
00:10:06.480 with my family life. So, I really yearn
00:10:08.320 to know who God was, what that
00:10:10.880 spirituality
00:10:12.160 >> was all about and grew up kind of in a
00:10:14.800 really dysfunctional home and really
00:10:17.600 just game became really despondent. And
00:10:21.120 one day I just cried out to God. It was
00:10:22.959 like maybe 8th grade and just said,
00:10:26.399 "God, I don’t want to live anymore. I
00:10:27.920 want you to know I want to know who you
00:10:29.920 are, but prove to me that you’re real
00:10:31.920 and I don’t want to live anymore. So, I
00:10:34.640 want to die by tomorrow. By tomorrow,
00:10:36.880 I’m going to kill myself
00:10:38.880 >> and show me that you’re real."
00:10:41.519 >> And the next morning, I woke up and I’m
00:10:43.440 like, "What an idiot I am. I dared God."
00:10:46.240 And I thought a thunder was going to go
00:10:48.480 through my head. I didn’t really know
00:10:50.240 God, but I thought
00:10:51.680 >> I dared God. And that’s the stupidest
00:10:53.519 thing you should do because I didn’t
00:10:54.959 know.
00:10:55.440 >> Yeah. You didn’t know what was going to
00:10:56.320 happen.
00:10:56.560 >> That God was a God of grace and mercy
00:10:58.480 and love and understanding. So the whole
00:11:01.360 day in school, I was completely frozen.
00:11:03.760 Literally thinking a lightning bolt’s
00:11:05.279 going to go through. Something’s going
00:11:06.720 to happen to me. And at the last class,
00:11:09.839 this kid that I never spoken to walked
00:11:12.160 up to me and it was a Friday and he
00:11:14.000 said, "Hey, my name is Andrew." And I
00:11:16.160 was wondering if he want to go to church
00:11:17.279 with me and my family on Sunday.
00:11:19.200 >> Oh my gosh, I love that.
00:11:20.959 >> And at that moment, I froze in my chair
00:11:22.560 and all I can say was yes. And I thought
00:11:24.320 in my mind, I said, "Well, God heard my
00:11:26.480 prayer and he heard what I did." And
00:11:28.160 then from that moment, you know, I
00:11:30.160 realized that God was real and he he
00:11:31.920 meets people where we’re at.
00:11:33.920 >> That’s fantastic. throughout the summer
00:11:36.320 hung out with his family and went to
00:11:37.839 church and devoted my life to the Lord.
00:11:40.079 >> That’s beautiful.
00:11:40.800 >> How did your family react to that? Or
00:11:42.480 were there kind of distance with that?
00:11:44.560 >> That’s a question I want to answer to is
00:11:46.560 is because I was I was raised Jewish.
00:11:48.880 Yeah.
00:11:49.279 >> And and we have a a similar sort of
00:11:51.839 thing. It was more
00:11:54.720 societal,
00:11:55.760 >> right,
00:11:56.560 >> uh for me than it was actually
00:11:58.800 religious. And so, how did your family
00:12:01.040 respond? The Jewish dynamic that you
00:12:03.040 probably know and relate to is they’re
00:12:04.959 very anti-Jesus.
00:12:06.800 >> Absolutely.
00:12:07.440 >> And they’re very proud of that, right?
00:12:09.519 Not every Jewish family, right? But the
00:12:11.360 large majority because they’re waiting
00:12:13.760 for their Messiah.
00:12:14.800 >> Well, I almost said Ken’s like atheist
00:12:16.639 Jewish almost.
00:12:17.600 >> Yes. And they don’t know that Jesus is
00:12:20.160 rooting the Messiah. that the curtain
00:12:22.000 was torn down and there’s so much
00:12:24.160 literalism from the Old Testament that
00:12:26.240 got fulfilled, but they still won’t
00:12:27.920 accept the fact that that it was Jesus
00:12:30.240 for whatever reason. And my family
00:12:33.680 reacted not great, but what happened was
00:12:37.680 they saw a change in my life and they
00:12:39.600 were happy that I was not dark anymore
00:12:42.079 and they were happy that I was happy.
00:12:44.399 They were happier that I was kind of
00:12:47.040 filled with some purpose. And I think
00:12:49.200 that was the majority of what they felt
00:12:51.680 pleased by, not necessarily the
00:12:53.920 spirituality. Um, but they felt like,
00:12:56.720 okay, well, something is changing in his
00:12:58.880 life and it’s for and it’s for the
00:13:00.880 better. So, I think that was a good
00:13:02.240 season.
00:13:02.880 >> Yeah. You know, it’s interesting, too,
00:13:04.399 because I’ve I’ve spent a lot of time
00:13:06.240 thinking um you know, since since
00:13:10.800 finding Jesus, since since coming to
00:13:13.040 faith, you know, how can I help other
00:13:18.000 Jewish people understand that Jesus is
00:13:21.040 the Messiah? And and I’ve spent a lot of
00:13:23.040 time thinking about exactly what you’re
00:13:25.040 talking about. When growing up Jewish
00:13:27.760 and and you know, we went to synagogue,
00:13:30.399 we were not that devout. We really
00:13:32.399 weren’t. it was just, you know, a thing
00:13:34.800 to do. But, you know, now studying the
00:13:38.240 Bible and looking through it, I’ve been
00:13:39.920 shocked at all the things that are
00:13:42.320 actually there pointing towards Jesus.
00:13:44.399 And I’ve just always wondered what’s the
00:13:46.560 best way to go about talking with other
00:13:48.880 Jewish people and and trying to get them
00:13:50.639 to understand Jesus is the Messiah.
00:13:53.600 Yeah. I just think that like like
00:13:55.120 anything else, it’s just by being their
00:13:57.839 friend and just by being a neighbor to
00:14:00.240 them and just showing them love and
00:14:02.079 grace and hanging out with them and then
00:14:03.680 while they see your lifestyle and
00:14:05.760 hopefully they see, you know, something
00:14:07.760 different in you, they’re going to want
00:14:08.959 to ask and say, "What is that?" And as
00:14:11.199 conversations come up, you can continue
00:14:13.600 to show them and say, "This is what I’ve
00:14:15.760 experienced and this is how not only God
00:14:18.000 has changed me, but this is how Christ
00:14:19.839 has changed me."
00:14:20.480 >> Right. Absolutely.
00:14:21.360 >> Right.
00:14:22.079 >> Yeah. You’re right. the the best
00:14:23.839 evidence is is the work that he’s done
00:14:26.000 in our hearts and in our lives. And I
00:14:28.480 guess I’m just as a lawyer looking for
00:14:30.320 the evidence that I can I can you know
00:14:32.639 prove the case.
00:14:33.519 >> Yeah. You need to read the Lee Stroble
00:14:35.360 book then
00:14:37.760 Christ.
00:14:38.240 >> Yeah. So that’s really the heart of the
00:14:39.920 evidence. When you see again that’s the
00:14:41.760 ask, seek and knock principle. If you
00:14:43.760 ask for something in your life and you
00:14:45.199 seek and you knock eventually a door is
00:14:47.279 going to, you know, open. And it might
00:14:48.720 not always be the door that you want,
00:14:50.800 you know, but if you’re seeking the
00:14:52.320 right things, God will bless you and
00:14:53.839 open the right door.
00:14:54.800 >> Yeah, that was very very instrumental in
00:14:56.639 me uh in my life. Megan brought that to
00:14:59.040 me uh the the case for Christ and it
00:15:01.040 really
00:15:01.839 >> it was a phenomenal just exposure to it.
00:15:04.800 >> Yeah, super great book. I’m a big fan of
00:15:07.040 reading. A lot of people don’t read in
00:15:08.480 the current world and I’m a big fan of
00:15:10.240 like real books, you know. Yeah,
00:15:12.000 >> I like audio books and podcasts.
00:15:14.320 >> But you want your hands on it.
00:15:15.760 >> I do. I love I mean I would have a
00:15:17.279 thousand books in my house if I had room
00:15:19.040 for them, you know.
00:15:19.600 >> Well, I got extras. You want to go dig
00:15:21.600 collection?
00:15:23.120 >> I don’t read. For some reason, I read
00:15:24.800 and it puts me to sleep.
00:15:27.920 >> So, is there anything I want to ask this
00:15:29.600 off-the-wall question, is there anything
00:15:31.839 that people probably don’t know about
00:15:34.480 you? Like, anything unique about you
00:15:37.199 that you like only one color M&M’s or
00:15:40.800 you like to sleep with slippers on?
00:15:43.279 Like, is there anything that’s fun and
00:15:45.120 unique about you?
00:15:47.199 >> I’m boring. There’s nothing fun or
00:15:48.639 unique about me. I don’t know. I mean, I
00:15:50.480 love Red Vines.
00:15:51.759 >> Oh, do you?
00:15:52.399 >> Yeah, I’m a big hockey fan. I’m a big
00:15:54.160 baseball fan, but a lot of people know
00:15:56.160 about that. I mean, I have a Wayne
00:15:57.360 Gretzky hockey stick in my office, so I
00:16:00.160 kind of wear that on my sleeve that I’m
00:16:02.000 a baseball sports fan. I don’t know. I
00:16:04.160 like sweets and little snacks.
00:16:06.560 >> Do you?
00:16:07.120 >> Yeah. I guess I’m just an average, Joe.
00:16:09.120 Most people like those things, right?
00:16:10.560 >> You’re far from average. I can tell you
00:16:12.079 that. I agree with Megan about that.
00:16:13.440 You’re far from an average man.
00:16:14.560 >> I’m simple. I’m just pretty simple. You
00:16:16.720 give me a bowl of vanilla ice cream. If
00:16:18.560 there’s chocolate drizzle on top of it,
00:16:20.800 that’s even a great blessing. Just
00:16:22.720 >> a taco once in a while.
00:16:24.079 >> Nuts or no nuts on your Sunday from uh
00:16:26.639 McDonald’s.
00:16:27.040 >> I usually don’t have nuts, but I’m happy
00:16:28.800 to have nuts.
00:16:29.600 >> Oh,
00:16:30.560 >> nuts have protein. Peanuts have protein.
00:16:32.639 And that’s
00:16:33.199 >> true.
00:16:33.519 >> That’s a benefit to it. Yeah, we need
00:16:35.600 protein.
00:16:36.160 >> You absolutely cannot have. Ken hates
00:16:38.079 onions.
00:16:38.639 >> I don’t like beets. I don’t like liver.
00:16:40.399 And I don’t like pickles. Okay.
00:16:42.720 >> Yeah. So, I tell people I don’t mind
00:16:44.720 cucumbers, but pickles to me are like
00:16:47.120 kryptonite. And you know, the other
00:16:49.120 thing I despise is when they give you
00:16:51.360 the pickle next to the sandwich. The
00:16:54.079 pickle juice ruins your sandwich. Pickle
00:16:56.959 juice runs. And I always forget
00:16:59.120 sometimes that asks no pickle and the
00:17:01.839 pickle juice stains your sandwich.
00:17:04.319 >> Not to sound bratty, but I don’t like
00:17:06.079 that.
00:17:06.400 >> No, I’m that way with onions. I can tell
00:17:09.280 when you get a sandwich from a place and
00:17:11.599 you get uh slices of tomato on the
00:17:13.839 sandwich. I can tell if the tomato has
00:17:16.000 been stored in the refrigerator next to
00:17:17.760 the onion cuz I can taste it. So,
00:17:20.079 >> but I don’t like pickles. I don’t like
00:17:21.439 pickles on my hamburgers on the on the
00:17:23.359 sandwich.
00:17:23.760 >> Do you like the smell of pickles?
00:17:25.199 >> No. No, definitely not.
00:17:27.679 >> All right, moving on from pickles.
00:17:29.039 >> Definitely not. But my niece has a dog
00:17:31.120 named Mr. Pickles and that’s really
00:17:33.360 cool. No, but it’s really cool. And then
00:17:35.840 I was walking around New York and I saw
00:17:38.080 Mr. Pickles furniture company or
00:17:40.559 sandwich truck or something and I had to
00:17:42.400 take a photo of it of course.
00:17:43.600 >> Oh sandwiches. Yeah. I I was we were
00:17:46.240 mock doing an interview for you
00:17:48.000 yesterday because this is our first
00:17:49.679 interview. Awesome.
00:17:50.640 >> And the question I had for Jack. Jack
00:17:52.320 played you.
00:17:53.200 >> Yeah.
00:17:53.679 >> And you did a good job.
00:17:54.640 >> Great. I like
00:17:56.240 >> I asked him
00:17:57.520 >> You could dub him in if I don’t if you
00:17:59.120 don’t like what I say.
00:17:59.919 >> What’s your favorite sandwich? Do you
00:18:01.919 have a favorite sandwich? Yeah.
00:18:03.440 >> I dub a lot. The chicken salad is one of
00:18:06.080 my favorites. I love chicken salad
00:18:07.919 sandwich.
00:18:08.960 >> I love chicken salad.
00:18:10.400 >> And if I’m in New York, it’s a pastrami
00:18:12.080 sandwich. Okay. You know, old school.
00:18:13.919 Okay. Yeah.
00:18:14.880 >> Yum. Well, you like kind of Cuban music,
00:18:17.840 you said, right? Was that?
00:18:18.960 >> I do like Cuban music.
00:18:19.760 >> Do you like Cuban sandwiches?
00:18:21.280 >> Yeah, I like Cuban sandwiches. I’ve had
00:18:22.880 a few.
00:18:23.360 >> Have you?
00:18:23.840 >> Yeah.
00:18:24.880 >> That’s awesome.
00:18:26.160 >> So, Randy, how did you get started with
00:18:27.840 Alice Cooper’s Place? I moved back to
00:18:30.080 Phoenix 15 years ago or so and I wrote I
00:18:34.559 heard about their organization
00:18:36.960 on the radio or the newspaper and I
00:18:38.960 literally wrote it down on a notepad.
00:18:41.200 I’m like I’d like to call them and find
00:18:42.799 out a little bit more. And then I was
00:18:44.720 looking for an office space and this was
00:18:47.520 so random and and such a God divine
00:18:50.320 moment. And I was meeting with folks at
00:18:52.160 the city of Tempee who own buildings and
00:18:56.480 they were talking to me about possible
00:18:58.000 office space and they said you should
00:19:00.480 meet Lesie because Lesie runs all the
00:19:02.720 music for downtown Temp and Mil Avenue.
00:19:05.280 And I said go I’ll meet anybody. It
00:19:06.960 doesn’t matter if they’re a janitor or
00:19:08.799 CEO. So, I met Lesie maybe a week later
00:19:11.600 and in the middle of the meeting, Lesie
00:19:14.240 said, "I was reading your bio and resume
00:19:17.120 and I volunteer for Alice Cooper’s
00:19:19.280 organization. Do you know much about
00:19:20.720 it?" And I said, "I know a little bit
00:19:23.200 and I’d like to know much more." And she
00:19:25.919 said, "I want you to be a judge for
00:19:28.000 their music competition that we do every
00:19:30.320 year." So, about two months later, I was
00:19:32.640 a judge for a few weeks and saw what
00:19:36.160 they did to help kids and be a light to
00:19:38.480 kids. Sure.
00:19:39.360 >> And then I went, I really want to help
00:19:41.600 them and I offered to volunteer and I
00:19:44.799 was creating my own 501c3 nonprofit at
00:19:48.160 that time. I’ve wanted to be involved
00:19:50.480 more in philanthropy, you know, for a
00:19:52.720 long time and kind of get away from the
00:19:54.960 drama and the psychosis and the
00:19:57.039 craziness of the music business and kind
00:19:59.440 of blend what I do in the music business
00:20:01.600 with giving back and helping. And
00:20:04.880 through uh volunteering, I just got to
00:20:08.559 know their organization and they offered
00:20:10.480 me a free office space. And then I got
00:20:12.880 to be a fly on the wall and see how they
00:20:15.440 were running the organization. And then
00:20:17.520 I thought, I want to volunteer here more
00:20:19.440 because they’re here for the purity of
00:20:22.240 it. They’re really here to help the
00:20:23.760 kids. They don’t spend money. They’re
00:20:26.000 frugal like me. They’re Jewish.
00:20:28.000 >> Yes.
00:20:28.799 >> And they really, you know, because you
00:20:30.320 hear a lot of stereotypes of a lot of
00:20:32.400 501c3s and nonprofits, not all, but you
00:20:35.520 hear a lot of stereotypes that they’re
00:20:37.520 exorbitant with their spending and the
00:20:39.919 CEOs and the executives make tons of
00:20:42.159 money and they have three airplanes,
00:20:44.240 etc., etc. And
00:20:46.320 >> the Bible says we want to help orphans
00:20:48.159 and widows and be able to, you know, be
00:20:50.640 involved in the poor and we want to
00:20:52.080 serve others. And again, I just saw what
00:20:54.640 Alice’s team was doing that they were
00:20:56.720 really in it for the right reasons. And
00:20:58.799 they offered me a part-time job after
00:21:00.799 volunteering for two years, and that
00:21:02.880 morphed into kind of a full-time job.
00:21:05.120 And I tell people that after 14 years,
00:21:07.840 I’m blessed that the key still works,
00:21:09.840 and they’re crazy enough to still let me
00:21:12.640 walk in the building.
00:21:14.080 >> Well, but you’ve been a a valuable asset
00:21:16.880 to their organization. I’ve learned so
00:21:19.120 much from Alice and Cheryl and their
00:21:21.280 team and to help Alice and Cheryl and
00:21:24.240 their team implement their vision and to
00:21:28.559 maybe add on, you know, to what they
00:21:31.440 want to do and be able to create some
00:21:33.200 opportunities and some open doors and
00:21:35.600 you know and again just it takes a
00:21:38.320 village and any business you need a team
00:21:40.880 of people around you. one person or two
00:21:43.520 people can’t do that alone. And they’ve
00:21:45.679 been really blessed to, you know, be
00:21:47.520 like the Kansas City Chiefs of sorts.
00:21:49.520 >> Yeah.
00:21:49.919 >> You know, and just all run down the
00:21:51.679 field, you know, together. And we get
00:21:54.240 bruised sometimes and sometimes we get a
00:21:56.480 win and sometimes we get a touchdown and
00:21:58.960 sometimes we win a Super Bowl. And the
00:22:01.200 Super Bowl and the touchdown is
00:22:02.960 impacting kids lives and changing lives.
00:22:05.760 That’s the the benefit of what we do
00:22:07.840 every day. And that’s the goal and the
00:22:10.480 hope and the focus and we’re really
00:22:12.559 blessed with a great team.
00:22:13.919 >> Now you guys are are a 501c3 nonprofit
00:22:18.880 >> for 30 years.
00:22:19.919 >> Do you guys consider yourself a ministry
00:22:21.760 as well?
00:22:22.400 >> Oh yeah, we’re a ministry. Yeah, that’s
00:22:24.080 the main thing what we do.
00:22:25.360 >> How do you bring that to the kids?
00:22:28.640 Because I am Am I correct that you guys
00:22:30.799 are not very overt with it or are you?
00:22:35.840 Well, we kind of describe ourselves as a
00:22:38.159 Boys and Girls Club meets Young Life.
00:22:41.280 And if anybody’s not been to our Phoenix
00:22:43.440 Teen Center, it’s 28,000 square feet and
00:22:46.159 you can get free music lessons there.
00:22:48.080 And there’s a recording studio like
00:22:49.679 you’d see in LA or Nashville. There’s a
00:22:52.240 beautiful big art room. There’s an open
00:22:54.880 mic stage the size of a mini concert
00:22:57.679 venue. So, we have a lot of really cool
00:23:00.240 resources and we just really believe in
00:23:03.360 just showing love to kids and telling
00:23:06.000 kids that God and Jesus has changed our
00:23:08.960 life. And that doesn’t happen overnight.
00:23:11.440 It builds you build trust because a lot
00:23:14.240 of kids that we serve, probably 80 80%
00:23:17.039 of them plus are underserved and come
00:23:19.440 from broken homes and families or maybe
00:23:22.000 they’re homeless and they don’t trust
00:23:23.919 adults. They come from a lot of broken
00:23:26.159 situations and they come through the
00:23:28.559 door and
00:23:30.400 >> they don’t trust us.
00:23:31.600 >> Yeah.
00:23:32.000 >> And as they meet us and we continue to
00:23:34.720 say, "We’re going to be here on
00:23:35.840 Wednesday. We’re going to do this for
00:23:37.440 you." And that happens maybe fifth,
00:23:40.080 sixth time, they’ll start connecting
00:23:42.159 with us more. And all of a sudden, their
00:23:43.919 walls will come down and they’ll say,
00:23:45.600 "Gosh, I want to know more about why you
00:23:47.520 guys are different."
00:23:48.400 >> Fantastic.
00:23:48.960 >> I love that. I’ve been to your center
00:23:50.400 and it’s be that center is beautiful. We
00:23:52.880 love what we do and it’s a it’s a
00:23:54.720 privilege to do it.
00:23:55.760 >> And you’ve got three locations now.
00:23:57.520 >> Yeah, we’ve been expanding. Um after our
00:24:00.640 10th year or so, we started looking for
00:24:02.480 our second center and we did a
00:24:04.240 partnership with Mesa Public Schools.
00:24:06.159 Any kid from anywhere in the world could
00:24:08.320 go to that um center, but it’s a
00:24:10.400 partnership with Mesa schools that we’re
00:24:11.760 in a Mesa school building. And then
00:24:13.760 we’ve been doing live music events and
00:24:15.600 art events with the city of Goodyear for
00:24:18.000 12 years um several times a year
00:24:20.960 throughout the year. and the city of
00:24:22.559 Goodyear had an empty library for two
00:24:25.039 years and we did a partnership with the
00:24:26.960 city of Goodyear that we inherited a
00:24:29.360 library that was unused and we
00:24:31.039 repurposed a building and we just opened
00:24:33.200 up our 13 center in July of 2025.
00:24:36.559 >> Yeah. And that’s how we met through
00:24:37.919 opening Tones and Bones, but we’re
00:24:39.919 babies. It’s like I think maybe one day
00:24:43.679 >> if God is supposed to have it happen, we
00:24:45.440 can be a fraction of what you guys are.
00:24:47.840 And I was inspired by what you guys were
00:24:49.840 doing as I read a little bit about it
00:24:51.279 and I wanted to call y’all and find out
00:24:53.440 much about it because we don’t view any
00:24:55.360 other, you know, partners or any other
00:24:58.080 ministries or organizations as
00:25:00.240 competition because we’re all trying to
00:25:01.679 do the same thing. Absolutely. Is lift
00:25:03.279 up kids. And if you guys are meeting a
00:25:05.039 need of kids in Glendale and we have
00:25:08.080 kids in Glendale that might not be able
00:25:09.840 to have time or access to go to
00:25:11.919 Goodyear, we don’t want those kids
00:25:13.760 sitting home alienated. We want to be
00:25:16.000 able to send them to an organization
00:25:18.320 like yours and we want to have
00:25:19.679 additional resource partners and we want
00:25:22.320 to be able to collaborate.
00:25:23.840 >> Absolutely. There’s there’s enough
00:25:25.520 people to go around that need help.
00:25:27.360 >> Phoenix is the fifth biggest city and
00:25:29.200 there’s a lot of people that have a
00:25:30.880 need, you know.
00:25:31.919 >> Absolutely. Absolutely. It’s it’s
00:25:34.320 unfortunate that they do, but it’s a
00:25:35.840 blessing that we can be there for them.
00:25:37.279 >> Yeah. There’s 400,000 kids in the state
00:25:39.919 of Arizona that don’t have an afterchool
00:25:42.720 program and 160,000 of those kids
00:25:46.400 between 300 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. are
00:25:48.960 unattended. They have no supervision.
00:25:51.279 And that’s where a lot of the challenges
00:25:52.880 come in is those kids, you know, could
00:25:55.200 potentially get involved in a lot of
00:25:57.039 negative things with that idle time. And
00:25:59.600 that’s what’s beautiful about Tones and
00:26:01.279 Bones and organizations, you know, like
00:26:03.440 Solid Rock Teen Centers that we can give
00:26:05.760 those kids a creative safe space that
00:26:08.159 they can have positive, encouraging
00:26:10.320 volunteers and they can maybe pick up a
00:26:12.640 guitar for the first time in their life.
00:26:14.559 They can learn to run live audio. They
00:26:17.039 can scream in a microphone if they’re
00:26:18.720 having a bad day and that’s mental
00:26:20.880 health improvement. They can socialize
00:26:23.120 and build friendships. There’s all sorts
00:26:25.200 of positive aspects and hopefully, you
00:26:28.159 know, they can make a connection with
00:26:29.520 the Lord and they can learn from our
00:26:31.520 staff and our volunteers about the great
00:26:33.919 news.
00:26:34.400 >> Fantastic. So, what’s it like when say a
00:26:38.320 a a kid has never been there before and
00:26:42.240 they just happen to open up the door and
00:26:45.679 walk in? I mean, is that just something
00:26:47.919 that they can do?
00:26:49.120 >> Yeah, absolutely. We welcome them with a
00:26:50.880 high five, give them a tour and start
00:26:53.679 trying to get to know them and show them
00:26:55.600 our programs and ask them what they’re
00:26:58.000 interested in and you know and if
00:27:00.000 they’re interested in learning to play
00:27:01.279 drums and they’re wearing a slip knot
00:27:03.200 shirt as an example or a corn shirt or a
00:27:06.320 POD shirt, our drum instructor will just
00:27:09.039 start playing a slip knot or a POD song,
00:27:11.360 you know, with them. If they’re
00:27:12.480 interested in, you know, singing, we’ll
00:27:14.320 tell them about our open mic or our
00:27:16.480 karaoke program that we have or
00:27:19.840 encourage them to record at our
00:27:21.360 recording studio, which they can also
00:27:23.360 learn how to produce and mix and
00:27:25.039 engineer and gain those type of skills.
00:27:28.000 >> And again, remind them for who’s
00:27:29.919 listening, maybe they missed it. How
00:27:31.520 much does this cost?
00:27:32.799 >> Uh, we’re 100% free. Everything that we
00:27:34.799 do is free. We have a lot of amazing
00:27:37.520 supporters, donors and private
00:27:40.000 foundations and brands like Taco Bell
00:27:42.720 and Amazon and Cox Communications that
00:27:45.600 are able to fund us and we’re really
00:27:48.080 thankful for a lot of community support
00:27:50.480 including you guys. Yeah.
00:27:53.039 >> Thank you. On another note with going
00:27:55.520 down the faith aspect, what percentage
00:27:58.000 of kids would you say that come in there
00:28:00.880 become Christian by coming to the
00:28:03.840 center? Do you have a statistic on that?
00:28:05.679 >> We probably have like 80% would be
00:28:08.559 unchurched. They’ve never really walked
00:28:11.120 into a church. They don’t really know
00:28:12.720 much about the Lord.
00:28:14.880 You know, we probably have, I don’t
00:28:17.120 know, 30%,
00:28:19.200 >> that’s great.
00:28:20.000 >> 40% maybe. We have a lot of kids
00:28:23.120 starting to seek and ask and knock and
00:28:25.919 certainly asking a lot of questions. We
00:28:28.399 do a program called pizza in Jesus and
00:28:30.720 the kids get pizza and they get a chance
00:28:33.039 to we get a chance to ask them what they
00:28:35.360 believe whether they believe anything
00:28:37.279 and then we can have a healthy positive
00:28:39.520 conversation and in a non-judgmental way
00:28:42.080 of like what we believe and we have an
00:28:44.000 open you know polite conversation about
00:28:47.360 that and that’s where we can really
00:28:48.880 initiate a lot of conversation about the
00:28:51.200 gospel and a lot of kids who come to
00:28:53.279 faith we start getting them plugged into
00:28:55.200 churches and say hey if you play drums
00:28:57.360 or guitar. Why don’t we get you to play
00:28:58.960 at this youth group on a Wednesday night
00:29:00.799 or this church on a Sunday morning or
00:29:03.039 start encouraging them to get involved
00:29:04.399 in a church home? Because we’re not a
00:29:06.480 church. We’re a parurch ministry. We’re
00:29:08.880 an afterchool program that’s
00:29:11.039 faith-based, but we’re open uh Monday
00:29:13.600 through Friday, 2:00 to 7:30 after
00:29:15.520 school. So, we want to encourage the
00:29:17.279 kids to have their own church
00:29:18.399 environment.
00:29:19.440 >> So, they don’t have transportation. Do
00:29:21.279 they ever ask you like, "How do we get
00:29:22.960 here? We don’t live close enough." Or is
00:29:25.440 there just, hey, find, you know, is
00:29:27.039 there busing around there or what do
00:29:29.279 what do they how do they get there?
00:29:30.640 >> We have kids literally jump on their
00:29:32.159 school buses and go to the other route.
00:29:34.480 >> Uh oh. Okay.
00:29:35.520 >> To get to our center, uh which the
00:29:37.760 school district has sent us letters that
00:29:39.440 they’re not allowed to do that,
00:29:42.240 >> but we tell the school district it’s not
00:29:44.240 really we’re not telling them to do
00:29:45.679 that.
00:29:46.240 >> Uh we have kids literally skateboard to
00:29:48.399 the center. Uh our center in Mesa is a
00:29:52.000 half block from the light rail so a lot
00:29:53.840 of kids can take public transportation
00:29:56.640 uh which is really convenient for the
00:29:58.320 kids. Goodyear in the west valley has a
00:30:00.720 program called we ride which is sort of
00:30:02.960 like Uber. It’s a dollar a ride and we
00:30:05.679 don’t have a partnership with them but
00:30:07.039 we can encourage them if they need a
00:30:08.720 ride. There’s a lot of schools that will
00:30:10.640 take kids on buses and shuttle buses to
00:30:13.279 the center. And there’s a lot of foster
00:30:15.440 group homes and churches and youth
00:30:17.520 groups that will take kids over. We have
00:30:20.000 about 70 to 90 kids every Monday night
00:30:22.320 at Goodyear from Young Life. And Young
00:30:24.559 Life doesn’t have a home location. And
00:30:26.960 we’re now their home location that those
00:30:29.520 kids can meet for Young Life on a
00:30:31.840 regular basis. And now a lot of those
00:30:33.840 kids are coming to our center Tuesday
00:30:36.159 through Friday and learning guitar or
00:30:37.919 learning art or being a part of our
00:30:39.840 program. So the transportation is kind
00:30:42.000 of a hybrid of everything. We do have a
00:30:43.760 lot of kids that walk or ride their
00:30:45.200 bikes.
00:30:45.840 >> Okay.
00:30:46.559 >> Can you think of a story or time when
00:30:48.960 when you really saw uh God show up in
00:30:53.919 the life of one of these kids that you
00:30:55.440 want to share?
00:30:56.240 >> Oh gosh, we have dozens and and and so
00:30:59.360 many stories. You know, we have this
00:31:03.200 young kid, I’ll use his name out of
00:31:06.080 privacy, but we’ll call him Steve, and
00:31:09.039 severely autistic, very high level
00:31:12.240 autism,
00:31:13.919 and was bullied in school so much, made
00:31:17.200 fun of, didn’t really have his tribe and
00:31:20.240 his any friends. came to our center,
00:31:23.760 started playing guitar, loved guitar,
00:31:26.799 then discovered uh video and
00:31:29.200 photography, and every day he would come
00:31:31.919 to our staff and tell him about his day
00:31:34.399 of school, and he would say, "I told my
00:31:35.840 teachers and other students about this
00:31:37.760 teen center, and he would some reason
00:31:40.399 connect with me and he would tell me
00:31:42.080 like all the time." You know, I’m just a
00:31:44.399 boring business guy in the office,
00:31:46.000 right? But he he would hang with me and
00:31:48.880 >> he felt safe to him. He totally felt
00:31:50.640 safe and it was a blessing God put him
00:31:53.039 in my life and
00:31:54.559 >> and after about 6 months um he came to
00:31:58.159 my office one day and said, "I want to
00:32:00.480 tell you about my day at school and tell
00:32:01.840 you what I’m doing for Christmas." And
00:32:03.440 and then he was about to leave and he
00:32:04.960 goes, "Oh, but wait, wait, there’s one
00:32:06.640 more thing." And he goes,
00:32:08.159 >> "I want to tell you that, you know, this
00:32:10.159 place has made me brave enough to ask
00:32:12.320 for counseling and therapy because I’ve
00:32:14.480 been suicidal. And I wanted to tell you
00:32:16.880 that this place has given me the bravery
00:32:19.200 to ask for help. And these walls and
00:32:22.240 these guitars and the video cameras and
00:32:24.480 the staff, this place has changed my
00:32:26.559 life. And I wouldn’t be alive unless it
00:32:28.720 was for this staff. I mean, it’s
00:32:30.240 amazing.
00:32:30.799 >> Cameras.
00:32:32.000 >> It’s so beautiful. And it leads me to be
00:32:34.799 thinking about some of the things that
00:32:36.080 we find at Tones and Bones when I feel
00:32:38.000 like things, you know, I’m sure for you
00:32:39.760 it makes everything that is the
00:32:41.840 stressful days. Yes.
00:32:43.279 >> Worth it. When you see something like
00:32:44.960 that, it’s, you know, you you’re
00:32:46.880 stressed out. The wheels are always
00:32:48.720 going. People are asking for stuff.
00:32:50.159 You’re busy. You know that word busy.
00:32:52.399 And then, you know, I’ll pop on the
00:32:54.000 camera if we’re not at Tones and Bones
00:32:55.360 and I see people praising the Lord.
00:32:56.799 >> Yeah. It’s beautiful. And when you get
00:32:59.360 to witness something bigger than
00:33:00.960 ourselves, you know,
00:33:03.200 >> because the future impact, right, of
00:33:05.039 those kids,
00:33:06.159 >> what are they going to be doing six
00:33:07.440 months or six years from now is
00:33:09.360 hopefully they will carry on
00:33:11.519 >> that flag of the gospel and let people
00:33:13.760 know in their lives what they’re up to.
00:33:16.320 You know,
00:33:16.720 >> it’s generational change,
00:33:18.080 >> right?
00:33:18.480 >> Yeah. You think about the lives that
00:33:19.919 they’re going to touch and the
00:33:20.960 difference they’re going to make in
00:33:22.000 their lives
00:33:23.039 >> for other people.
00:33:24.240 >> Yeah.
00:33:24.480 >> And the ripple effect. We had one young
00:33:26.240 girl years ago told us that she went to
00:33:28.559 our center, never heard of it, and she
00:33:31.120 wrote a notebook in her notebook that
00:33:33.679 morning. Take pills, say goodbye to my
00:33:35.919 friends,
00:33:36.880 >> go to the park, and die.
00:33:38.159 >> Oh, no.
00:33:38.720 >> And then her counselor asked her, "What
00:33:42.000 do you want to do in your life?" And she
00:33:43.279 said, "I want to play guitar." And he
00:33:44.720 goes, "There’s a teen center that’ll
00:33:46.880 teach you how to play guitar. I’ll take
00:33:48.799 you." The counselor had no idea what she
00:33:51.760 wrote in the notebook that day. And she
00:33:53.679 said, "I’ll go to the teen center."
00:33:55.200 Okay. And she was still going to go to
00:33:56.480 the park later on. And she told us
00:33:58.720 later,
00:33:59.519 >> she said, "For the first time in my
00:34:00.960 life, I felt somebody cared about me and
00:34:03.360 acknowledged me and loved me and they
00:34:05.360 would miss me if I was gone. I’m going
00:34:06.960 to give my life another chance."
00:34:08.960 >> And then 6 months later, she wrote a
00:34:10.800 note to Alice and Cheryl and said, "Can
00:34:13.199 I give this note to Alice and Cheryl?"
00:34:15.359 And she said, "I’m alive because of this
00:34:17.199 place." And then Alice said at a board
00:34:19.440 meeting, "If we did this teen center for
00:34:21.599 13 years for that one person, I’m all
00:34:24.960 for it. That’s worth it. And I’ll do it
00:34:27.040 again for one more kid for another 15
00:34:28.879 years."
00:34:29.280 >> Amen.
00:34:29.839 >> Makes it all worth it.
00:34:30.719 >> It’s all worth it. And we’ve had six,
00:34:32.719 seven kids at least tell us that they
00:34:34.320 not committed suicide. Wow.
00:34:35.839 >> By coming to our center and then kids
00:34:37.520 getting jobs and college scholarships
00:34:39.918 and becoming, you know, a better
00:34:42.560 connection with their mom and dad, not
00:34:44.399 being angry anymore in life. And that
00:34:47.119 transformation makes our communities
00:34:49.199 better, right? There’s less graffiti
00:34:51.119 potentially. There’s less violence,
00:34:52.800 right? You know, and it just makes our
00:34:54.719 community better overall when those kids
00:34:56.639 are happier.
00:34:57.760 >> Oh, definitely. It’s like we said, it’s
00:34:59.440 that ripple effect when you’re you
00:35:01.680 you’re bringing them in and they’re not
00:35:03.359 bored. Right. Idle hands is the devil’s
00:35:05.760 workshop.
00:35:06.240 >> Yeah. And isn’t it like graceful and
00:35:08.800 amazing of God to use this guy that
00:35:12.079 everybody thought was evil Alice Cooper,
00:35:14.800 right?
00:35:15.359 >> And everybody thought was like so bad
00:35:17.599 and rock and roll that was just a
00:35:20.160 character like Villain Price or Vincent
00:35:22.480 Price or a character like other
00:35:24.640 characters, you know, and he decided to
00:35:27.839 do a teen center and have some impact in
00:35:30.400 a city where he lived cuz he wanted to
00:35:32.720 see change in his community. And this
00:35:35.200 person that was supposedly so bad in the
00:35:37.760 world, you know, became a believer and
00:35:40.400 decided to do something really cool to
00:35:42.480 help kids.
00:35:43.280 >> Yeah. And he has done so much for the
00:35:45.040 city. Yeah.
00:35:45.839 >> For the area.
00:35:46.800 >> And that’s one of the reasons we’re
00:35:47.760 doing the podcast, too, is to just be
00:35:49.520 real. I think a lot of people have
00:35:51.359 images of people or they’re untouchable.
00:35:54.480 They’re not like us. So, they put labels
00:35:56.480 on them.
00:35:57.040 >> Yeah. Being authentic is so important,
00:35:58.800 right? Because we all have flaws. We all
00:36:01.200 have imperfections. We all have fears.
00:36:03.200 We all have insecurities and it’s one of
00:36:05.520 the reasons we need a savior is he makes
00:36:07.119 us better a little bit, you know.
00:36:08.720 >> Without a doubt. Without a doubt.
00:36:10.800 >> Yeah. He reminds you that we are perfect
00:36:12.720 in his eyes
00:36:13.680 >> and he blesses us with chicken salad
00:36:15.280 sandwich.
00:36:15.680 >> Now you’re making me hungry. I want a
00:36:17.760 chicken salad sandwich.
00:36:20.240 >> You know what? You know who makes the
00:36:21.599 best ham? Do you like ham salad?
00:36:23.599 >> Sure.
00:36:24.720 >> Sometimes. Butcher Bob’s out off Bell
00:36:27.760 Road in Surprise.
00:36:28.640 >> Cool. Let’s go. I never been there. I
00:36:29.920 >> We have to go get Butcher Bob’s ham
00:36:31.520 salad.
00:36:32.000 >> That’s awesome. I can have like contain
00:36:33.760 I bought two containers the last time we
00:36:36.000 were out that way cuz Skyla goes to a
00:36:37.520 dentist over there. I should have bought
00:36:39.119 more because I come home later that
00:36:41.040 night
00:36:42.000 >> and all the ham salad’s gone. Skyla, you
00:36:44.320 know how little she is. She’s like, I
00:36:46.000 just cannot handle not eating ham salad.
00:36:49.520 >> And I love national brands, but I love
00:36:51.520 local mom and pops and be able to
00:36:53.200 support
00:36:53.839 >> without community. You know, that’s
00:36:55.920 really important because that’s
00:36:58.560 >> the thrust of economic development of
00:37:00.880 like creating jobs and seeing the money
00:37:03.359 go back locally into our economy and it
00:37:06.079 makes more of an impact than people
00:37:07.920 realize. And that’s a lot of what we do
00:37:10.160 in many ways. You know, when we do a
00:37:12.000 teen center, the local businesses
00:37:14.000 thrive, the local restaurant thrives.
00:37:16.720 Mom and dad has to drive down the street
00:37:18.560 somewhere, you know, while the teens are
00:37:20.880 at the center and they can go to the
00:37:22.160 local dry cleaner, they can get a local
00:37:24.160 meal, you know, they can go to the local
00:37:26.160 store.
00:37:26.640 >> Sure.
00:37:27.040 >> And everybody, you know, thrives that
00:37:29.040 way. when we sending kids out to perform
00:37:32.160 in the community because a lot of kids
00:37:34.400 get paid to perform at ASU or Mesa Art
00:37:37.680 Center, the City of Goodyear or Arizona
00:37:40.160 Bike Week and events that we do and that
00:37:42.800 creates economic development, right? And
00:37:44.880 it brings in ticket sales and the food
00:37:47.280 vendors get blessed and you know, so
00:37:49.920 everything is just this great circle of
00:37:52.400 helping each other.
00:37:53.359 >> We talk about it in terms of our law
00:37:55.119 firm. There’s there’s been this influx
00:37:57.200 of out ofstate law firms coming into the
00:37:59.520 area and
00:38:00.640 >> you know we we think to ourselves,
00:38:03.280 wouldn’t you want somebody who knows,
00:38:05.119 you know, the intersection where the
00:38:06.560 accident happened, knows the the doctors
00:38:08.800 that you’re you’re treating with,
00:38:10.480 >> has a direct relationship with the
00:38:12.000 police force.
00:38:13.280 >> Exactly.
00:38:14.079 >> We know. Yeah, we’ve been in the city.
00:38:16.720 We’ve made relationships, but you know,
00:38:19.280 God has a plan for everything. So, we
00:38:21.280 just have to wait and see what that
00:38:22.720 looks like. How about some uh funny
00:38:25.440 stories or or anecdotal things about
00:38:28.960 either Alice Cooper or you know anything
00:38:31.839 >> any famous person you don’t have to drop
00:38:33.200 their name any any funny story that
00:38:35.119 you’re like
00:38:35.520 >> I mean I’ll tell you one story that
00:38:36.720 Alice told us you know a couple years
00:38:39.040 ago that a lot of people know he’s
00:38:40.640 synonymous with snakes and using snakes
00:38:43.280 on stage and those are usually local
00:38:45.599 domesticated pets that they just go
00:38:47.520 bring in
00:38:48.400 >> okay etc etc and he said one time he was
00:38:52.240 on stage in Brazil and the snake was
00:38:55.920 crazy and wild and just snapping at him
00:39:01.359 like crazy. And he asked the promoter
00:39:03.359 lately and he goes, "Oh yeah, that’s
00:39:04.720 that’s Pete. He got it from the jungle
00:39:06.400 and ripped it down from a tree and
00:39:08.720 everything and those real crazy bad evil
00:39:12.480 snakes and we don’t want to use those."
00:39:14.000 >> Oh my gosh.
00:39:14.800 >> on stage. So,
00:39:16.000 >> no. And Ken hates snakes.
00:39:17.599 >> Yeah. You hang with Alice and you get a
00:39:19.680 lot of
00:39:20.400 >> a lot of stories. But, you know, I’ve
00:39:22.240 been just been blessed to see a lot of
00:39:24.240 really
00:39:25.920 amazing people create music in the
00:39:28.240 recording studio. And with that comes a
00:39:30.720 lot of laughter and a lot of stories.
00:39:32.240 And, you know, I usually don’t kiss and
00:39:34.320 tell and tell the names and everything
00:39:36.640 because I want to have that reputation
00:39:38.880 that you don’t go around and say all
00:39:41.040 that. There’s a lot of NDAs as well.
00:39:43.440 >> Sure.
00:39:44.240 >> That happen when you work with people
00:39:45.839 like Madonna or Jason Newstead or people
00:39:48.480 like that. So, you want to be private
00:39:51.040 about that.
00:39:51.760 >> Anyone smell really good?
00:39:54.960 >> I’m into perfume.
00:39:56.480 >> Yeah. I don’t
00:39:58.640 >> I love smells.
00:40:00.720 >> I mean, Cheryl Cooper comes to mind.
00:40:02.400 They’re always dressed in a nines, but
00:40:04.320 Cheryl is frugal and great and people
00:40:06.560 are like, "I love that dress." And she’s
00:40:08.640 like, " $9 at Ross Ross." You know,
00:40:11.680 >> I love it. It’s how you how you how your
00:40:14.240 confidence is, right? I love that. I
00:40:16.320 know. I got this Fourth of July dress. I
00:40:18.800 don’t know what store it was at, but I
00:40:20.800 had a $40 coupon and it was $14.
00:40:25.119 >> More money for chicken salad sandwiches,
00:40:27.760 right? Extra money. Extra money to give
00:40:30.800 a homeless guy down the street who
00:40:32.320 really genuinely needs it, right?
00:40:33.599 >> Oh, yeah. I It’s funny. I had a memory
00:40:35.280 come up on Facebook and I had to give
00:40:36.800 this guy money. I don’t carry cash
00:40:38.560 anymore. They don’t give you cash
00:40:39.839 anymore at the registers. They used to
00:40:41.040 say
00:40:41.200 >> I think a lot of homeless people take
00:40:42.400 Venmo, but maybe
00:40:43.520 >> No, I know. They should take Venmo. Hey,
00:40:46.240 hey, Venmo, do that. This guy had a sign
00:40:47.920 that says, "I’m too ugly to strip and
00:40:50.160 I’m too nice to steal. Can you give me
00:40:52.000 some cash?" And I was like,
00:40:53.839 >> you are hilarious.
00:40:55.119 >> You earned it.
00:40:56.000 >> I’m giving you some cash. So, you guys
00:40:58.880 have proof is in the pudding coming up.
00:41:01.040 I wanted to let you talk about that and
00:41:03.200 where people can register and what what
00:41:05.520 that is all about.
00:41:06.319 >> Yeah, we do an annual music competition
00:41:08.079 every year in October and November. uh
00:41:10.560 the winning band and solo artist gets
00:41:12.480 $2,000 and $1,000 cash and gets to also
00:41:15.680 open for Alice Cooper at our Christmas
00:41:17.920 concert which has a variety of
00:41:19.920 celebrities and very cool.
00:41:21.760 >> It’s uh four rounds. We go um four
00:41:25.200 different venues and any music genre is
00:41:28.319 welcome. We’ve had mariachi winners,
00:41:30.800 we’ve had hip-hop winners, country
00:41:32.480 winners, metal winners. Jordan Sparks
00:41:35.359 won our competition 21 years ago and she
00:41:38.079 won American Idol two years later.
00:41:40.079 >> Cool. I knew American Idol. I didn’t
00:41:41.599 know about that for
00:41:42.800 >> Yeah. If they go on our website, um they
00:41:44.960 can look up all the information under
00:41:47.280 events and they can sign up. The first
00:41:49.200 date is September 22nd. We usually have
00:41:52.160 about 120 bands and soul artist every
00:41:54.720 year.
00:41:55.440 >> Is there an age limit or how young you
00:41:57.280 can be? How old?
00:41:57.920 >> Age is 12 to 25.
00:41:59.359 >> Okay.
00:41:59.839 >> And you don’t have to live in Arizona.
00:42:01.359 It doesn’t matter where you are. We’ve
00:42:03.119 literally had submissions from Hawaii,
00:42:05.680 from California, from Nevada, from
00:42:08.319 Chicago.
00:42:09.599 >> And does it cost to enroll?
00:42:10.960 >> I think it costs $20 to sign up and then
00:42:13.760 we give you your $20 back if you show up
00:42:16.640 because a lot of young people, for some
00:42:18.960 reason, again, we were talking about
00:42:20.640 that generation earlier in the
00:42:22.960 conversation. A lot of young people will
00:42:24.640 sign up and never show up. So, we want
00:42:26.880 people to have a little skin in the game
00:42:28.480 to show that they’re serious.
00:42:30.160 >> Makes sense.
00:42:30.960 >> Yeah, I know. Definitely. There’s that.
00:42:33.680 It’s a different attitude. I’ve had some
00:42:35.839 young people work for me or and then I’m
00:42:38.640 up till 2:00 a.m. and I’m be 52 on
00:42:41.440 Sunday. Not to age myself, but I am
00:42:43.280 aging myself. But I’m happy to be 52 in
00:42:46.000 here again. But they’ll say, "Oh, no. I
00:42:47.920 got to go home and I got to go to bed
00:42:49.119 and I got to get my nine hours sleep."
00:42:50.640 And I’m like,
00:42:51.359 >> "Right,
00:42:51.839 >> wait a minute. I’m older than you. Why
00:42:53.440 do you have to get your sleep?" Well,
00:42:55.119 that’s going back to that thing that we
00:42:57.040 were talking about earlier as well, the
00:42:58.480 grit, the having to put in the time and
00:43:00.720 the hard work and the the leg work to to
00:43:03.839 really
00:43:05.599 make it to where you want to be.
00:43:06.800 >> But what happened? Do you think it’s the
00:43:07.920 parents fault? Like what happened that
00:43:09.359 these kids don’t have grit?
00:43:11.119 >> I think the definitely the computers and
00:43:13.119 the social media and the telephones,
00:43:15.200 everything is instant. And if you get a
00:43:17.760 reply immediately to think that the real
00:43:20.319 world works like that, if I’m
00:43:22.400 negotiating a contract, whether it’s for
00:43:24.800 a live concert or I’m trying to secure
00:43:27.760 an artist to perform a Christmas pudding
00:43:29.920 or I’m trying to negotiate a song for a
00:43:32.240 TV commercial, it might take six weeks,
00:43:34.880 you know, to do those kind of things.
00:43:36.720 You guys know what it’s like to do deals
00:43:38.960 on the on the legal side. Nothing
00:43:40.640 happens. 5 minutes. And I will literally
00:43:43.520 get text and private messages on DMs
00:43:46.480 from kids like 15 times in a row if you
00:43:49.839 don’t respond. I’m like, well, I could
00:43:51.440 be at dinner.
00:43:52.560 >> I could be meeting with a partner. I
00:43:54.240 could be meeting, you know, with a CEO.
00:43:56.480 I could be like at the doctor. I mean,
00:43:58.640 you don’t really know behind the scenes
00:44:00.160 what people are going through. And
00:44:01.440 sometimes it takes four hours or 10
00:44:04.000 hours for people to respond.
00:44:06.560 >> Sometimes you want to be able to ask
00:44:08.079 someone else for an answer before you
00:44:10.960 respond back. So when you respond back,
00:44:13.119 you actually have something tangible
00:44:14.880 versus I’ll get back with you. You want
00:44:16.960 to be able to actually be more precise.
00:44:19.599 >> So kids need to learn patience as well.
00:44:21.839 >> Yeah, patience is a big gift cuz
00:44:23.920 longevity is important, right?
00:44:25.440 Everything you want to do, you want to
00:44:26.720 think about your reputation and how you
00:44:28.880 interact with people. You’re not
00:44:30.480 interacting with people just for five
00:44:32.400 minutes or for that one gig or for that
00:44:34.720 one opportunity. How are you interacting
00:44:37.119 now?
00:44:38.640 and then the other person behind the
00:44:40.240 scenes will say, "Okay, I want to
00:44:42.160 interact with that person again in the
00:44:44.079 next 5 years and do business with that
00:44:45.839 person." Or that wasn’t an enjoyable
00:44:47.680 experience, there’s 400 other art
00:44:50.000 performers that are communicating with
00:44:51.520 me that want the same gig. And these
00:44:54.000 three people are easier to work with and
00:44:56.079 they also call back and they communicate
00:44:58.160 and they’re professional and they show
00:44:59.920 up on time and all that professionalism
00:45:03.040 101 and it’s a much easier experience.
00:45:06.160 and they say birds of feather flock
00:45:08.160 together, right? So, you want to have
00:45:09.520 that camaraderie and you want to give
00:45:11.280 those people a chance that are out there
00:45:13.200 hustling and asking and seeking and
00:45:15.040 knocking.
00:45:15.839 >> And it’s also for me, I had said once
00:45:18.079 that I was picking up the kids at school
00:45:20.400 and I saw this random person pull up in
00:45:23.119 a non it wasn’t even handicapped. It was
00:45:27.200 a striped spot that wasn’t Now, mind
00:45:30.240 you, the first time I saw them, I
00:45:31.680 thought, "Oh, maybe they’re in they’re
00:45:32.880 in a hurry." when the rules don’t apply
00:45:35.520 to people, I thought if that person came
00:45:37.680 to my office, I’d never hire them. So,
00:45:40.480 we talk about that where even though
00:45:43.680 you’re not in an interview or you’re
00:45:47.040 not, you know, one-on-one with someone
00:45:48.880 who’s hiring you, you’re always your
00:45:51.280 character is always
00:45:52.319 >> always you’re always being interviewed
00:45:53.920 and observed.
00:45:54.720 >> Yeah.
00:45:55.119 >> Yeah.
00:45:56.079 >> And I don’t think that that generation
00:45:57.839 realizes that.
00:45:59.599 >> They should realize it more because it’s
00:46:01.119 all out there. Right.
00:46:02.560 >> Right. A lot of them don’t. And a lot of
00:46:04.160 them don’t realize that if you have a
00:46:05.599 meeting at 10:00 a.m. ideally you’re
00:46:07.839 there at 10 minutes before,
00:46:10.079 >> you know, a lot of times, you know, for
00:46:12.160 example, we might have like a rehearsal,
00:46:14.319 you know, at our teen center, you know,
00:46:16.319 let’s just say with I’m just using a
00:46:18.000 random example with Journey if we’re
00:46:20.079 going to get like some of the guys in
00:46:21.440 Journey or Ari Speedwagon or Sister
00:46:23.760 Sledge to perform at our Christmas
00:46:25.760 concert or or an event and we tell the
00:46:28.880 sound person, okay, well, rehearsal
00:46:30.960 starts at 10:00 a.m. and some of the
00:46:33.040 talent starts walking in at 9:40, right?
00:46:35.680 And then the sound person’s not there
00:46:37.200 till 5 to 10, but then all of a sudden
00:46:40.079 the music director is asking me for an
00:46:41.920 amp or asking me to tune this or tune
00:46:44.400 that or the singer in the group. It’s
00:46:47.119 like, can I have a room, you know, that
00:46:49.359 I can start doing my rehearsals and I
00:46:51.760 want to start doing my warm-ups and I I
00:46:54.160 need this and I need that and I’m
00:46:55.920 looking at my sound crew. I’m looking at
00:46:58.160 my production team and they’re not there
00:47:00.560 yet. and that makes us look bad. But if
00:47:04.400 you’re there 10 minutes, 15 minutes
00:47:06.720 before, you know, the talent shows up,
00:47:10.319 you know, you’re going to be prepared
00:47:11.839 for those kind of things. And that
00:47:13.920 happens all the time. Like 99% of the
00:47:16.880 rehearsals or the recording studio
00:47:18.960 sessions that I’ve ever done is that
00:47:21.119 people always want to warm up early and
00:47:23.520 they they have a question or they have a
00:47:25.839 need for that, you know. And I’m not the
00:47:27.520 production guy. And I’m not the guy
00:47:29.280 who’s the wizard, you know, that can go
00:47:31.520 plug everything into the
00:47:33.280 >> $500,000 recording console and know how
00:47:35.680 the microphone works and know how to
00:47:38.079 tune it to D or tune it to B or change a
00:47:41.200 drum head or whatever. God’s given
00:47:42.960 everybody gifts, right?
00:47:45.280 >> Production people around us and you
00:47:47.760 know, and then we have a lot of other
00:47:48.960 people that do a lot of other things
00:47:50.240 behind the scenes and we all are equally
00:47:52.480 important and talented. But you got to
00:47:54.240 show up on time.
00:47:55.040 >> You got to get there on time. I heard a
00:47:56.560 guy one time, he was uh a former
00:47:59.280 military and his
00:48:02.480 saying was if you’re on time, you’re
00:48:04.400 late.
00:48:04.800 >> Yeah, of course.
00:48:05.520 >> And I like that. Yeah,
00:48:06.640 >> I like that. And I think that’s that’s
00:48:08.720 something that’s lost on the upcoming
00:48:10.960 >> lost on me. I was late today, so I
00:48:12.400 apologize.
00:48:14.079 >> I have a good relationship with Janie
00:48:15.680 Hendricks who runs Jimmyi Hendricks’s
00:48:17.200 estate and we do a lot with her and she
00:48:19.440 says the same thing. If you’re 10
00:48:21.280 minutes late, you know, if you’re 10
00:48:22.880 minutes early, you’re late a little bit.
00:48:25.119 Yeah. Yeah.
00:48:26.160 >> I know when Jack goes to record with AD,
00:48:28.240 AD will say, "If we’re starting at 10, I
00:48:30.800 want you here minimum 9:45."
00:48:32.800 >> Right. Because you also don’t know what
00:48:34.240 the parking situation is going to be
00:48:35.760 like. You might run into traffic. You
00:48:37.680 might run into all these different
00:48:39.280 things. And you know, and I have artists
00:48:41.040 all the time that they arrive, let’s
00:48:43.119 say, for spring training and they’re
00:48:44.720 doing the national anthem. And I’m like,
00:48:46.559 there’s going to be 10 to 15,000 people
00:48:48.800 at this game. Sure. You need to be there
00:48:50.800 40 minutes early because you need to
00:48:52.480 plan for parking. You need to plan 15
00:48:54.880 minutes for your will call to get your
00:48:56.880 ticket. And you need to plan for the
00:48:58.880 fact that there’s going to be the
00:49:00.000 production person for the team that
00:49:02.079 they’re dealing with 20 fires and
00:49:03.599 they’re not going to be able to meet you
00:49:04.720 right away. And it’s like just because
00:49:06.559 you’re on the field at like 10:05 p.m.
00:49:10.079 doesn’t mean you can walk up at 1:00 and
00:49:12.480 you’re ready. You got to be there at
00:49:13.839 12:40. Yeah. 12:30 just in case all
00:49:16.480 these variables that are out of your
00:49:18.720 control happen. And and they will
00:49:20.319 happen.
00:49:20.880 >> Oh, definitely. Jack did the national
00:49:22.240 anthem for a couple of the baseball
00:49:23.920 games out here for spring training and
00:49:25.359 they wanted him there
00:49:26.880 >> three hours earlier or two hours and
00:49:28.960 it’s like you know you got to get there
00:49:31.440 they want to do a sound check then they
00:49:33.119 got to do this and and I don’t blame
00:49:34.880 them for that because I you know I’ve
00:49:36.880 watched
00:49:37.920 >> far less sound checks than you have
00:49:39.920 clearly but the ones that I’ve watched
00:49:41.440 sometimes it is sometimes a mess where
00:49:43.760 you’re like they can’t find this or they
00:49:45.920 can’t find that cord or they can’t find
00:49:47.599 this and they’re supposed to start 30
00:49:49.040 minutes ago and now you
00:49:51.119 Somebody’s not getting a sound check.
00:49:52.559 Like when we were in Poland, they were
00:49:54.160 we were on tour with Richard for a
00:49:56.400 missions trip and there’s student bands
00:49:58.720 playing and there was actually an adult
00:50:01.359 band and they couldn’t get their stuff
00:50:03.359 together and the other two bands don’t
00:50:04.720 get a sound check cuz it’s time to start
00:50:06.079 now. You never know what will happen.
00:50:07.440 And we’ve had bands, you know, play like
00:50:09.280 before the Arizona Cardinals game and
00:50:11.359 you have to dial in and all the wireless
00:50:13.280 guitars that you have and you have to
00:50:15.119 dial in on a certain transmitter because
00:50:17.599 you can interfere literally with the
00:50:19.599 transmitters that are on the field and
00:50:21.280 you got to dial in a certain thing and
00:50:23.119 you got to be on a different channel
00:50:24.880 literally and it tells you that in your
00:50:26.640 contract ahead of time, but you have to
00:50:29.040 take your time and be able to dial in
00:50:31.040 and they might change the channel at the
00:50:33.280 last minute because it wasn’t working on
00:50:34.880 the field. Then all of a sudden your
00:50:36.640 wireless system is all out of whack and
00:50:38.800 you’re about to go on stage in five
00:50:40.319 minutes. But if you were there 40
00:50:42.240 minutes before because of those hiccups
00:50:45.440 that we never know, you know, what’s
00:50:48.000 going to happen and you have to be
00:50:49.680 prepared.
00:50:50.319 >> You have to plan for the hiccups. You
00:50:51.920 have to know that inevitably something
00:50:53.839 is going to go wrong.
00:50:54.880 >> I mean, you look re recently at like
00:50:56.640 Katy Perry tours and Beyonce tours that
00:50:59.359 when they’re flying and doing their
00:51:01.040 thing, you know, there’s mishaps and
00:51:02.960 stuff like that. Those things happen.
00:51:04.880 you see YouTube live or or whoever and
00:51:07.520 sometimes there’s mistakes with the PA
00:51:09.760 system or the video thing and and even
00:51:12.480 at the grandest grandest largest things
00:51:14.480 in the world there’s going to be
00:51:15.920 mistakes and things happen. You just
00:51:17.440 have to go by the fly and you have to
00:51:19.520 prepare for those things.
00:51:21.200 >> Definitely.
00:51:21.920 >> You never know what’s going to happen.
00:51:23.280 >> No. And most of the time I don’t think
00:51:24.720 the audience knows but it’s very
00:51:26.240 stressful for the bands that are
00:51:27.520 playing.
00:51:28.079 >> Right.
00:51:28.559 >> You know for the behind the scenes where
00:51:30.000 they’re like why didn’t you get this up
00:51:31.760 or why didn’t you get that?
00:51:32.880 >> Right. Right. And do you teach that kind
00:51:35.119 of stuff at uh Solid Rock? Like
00:51:36.960 >> we do. We teach a lot of that kind of
00:51:38.400 stuff. And we also teach the fact that
00:51:40.480 you know the positivity is important. So
00:51:42.960 for example, if you’re going on the
00:51:44.960 radio, even if you have like
00:51:47.200 explicitives in your lyrics, we’re not
00:51:48.960 going to judge that. But just realize
00:51:51.200 that you might play the Arizona
00:51:52.800 Cardinals game or you might play in the
00:51:54.720 radio station or you might play like
00:51:56.640 later in the future late night TV and
00:51:59.040 they’re going to ask you for an edited
00:52:01.119 version. And just remember, you have to
00:52:03.839 be prepared for that. And sometimes you
00:52:06.160 will have an opportunity and if you’re
00:52:08.240 not rehearsed for that,
00:52:10.000 >> you have to, you know, be prepared in
00:52:12.079 advance. It’s going to be a bunch of
00:52:13.920 flubs live if you’re not prepared for
00:52:15.839 that. So you have to have
00:52:17.119 >> true version.
00:52:18.640 >> You’d be used to singing it that way,
00:52:20.240 right?
00:52:20.559 >> Yeah. Because they’ll tell you we’re not
00:52:21.920 going to air that explicit of,
00:52:23.760 >> you know, on the air because there’s
00:52:25.359 like 5-second delay often just in case
00:52:28.079 that, you know, that happened. And even
00:52:30.880 in Strange America today, we still have
00:52:32.880 some values on television.
00:52:34.160 >> I was just thinking that. I was like,
00:52:36.319 there’s some songs that Skyla sings
00:52:38.000 where I’m like, what the heck? This is
00:52:40.559 so dirty. But then that’s XM. But I
00:52:42.800 don’t know. Do they allow they
00:52:44.160 >> SiriusXM? For some reason, they have a
00:52:46.400 different license versus commercial
00:52:48.720 radio. You’re allowed to cuss on that,
00:52:51.040 etc. because they play a lot of songs
00:52:53.200 that are not filtered and DJs can say
00:52:56.400 explicitives, but there’s a different
00:52:58.559 license than the FCC for some reason.
00:53:01.200 I’m not sure because it’s satellite. I
00:53:03.280 don’t think that there’s laws in space
00:53:05.680 for all that. Yeah, I’m not familiar,
00:53:07.440 but I think you’re right. I think it is
00:53:08.880 something along those lines.
00:53:09.920 >> Oh, there’s no laws in space. I love
00:53:12.319 >> But you know what? It’s funny though
00:53:13.440 because Megan said uh you know we’ve
00:53:15.760 joked about how you know the the music
00:53:18.000 that the kids are listening to these
00:53:19.599 days can be so explicit and it’s it’s uh
00:53:22.640 shocking sometimes.
00:53:24.160 >> And then we’re driving down the road
00:53:25.920 listening to the music that we grew up
00:53:28.000 with and she’s singing it and she goes,
00:53:29.440 "Oh, wait a minute.
00:53:30.880 >> I think that’s a dirty song. I didn’t
00:53:32.240 realize it."
00:53:32.720 >> So naive like I’m like Anaconda don’t
00:53:35.280 want none. And I’m like
00:53:37.440 >> that’s not Do you know what? Oh, I
00:53:39.520 didn’t know that was
00:53:40.480 >> Yeah. I’ll have to have a polite
00:53:42.240 conversation with our staff sometimes
00:53:44.319 cuz if they’re thinking about, you know,
00:53:46.400 like performing a song, let’s say at our
00:53:48.319 golf tournament in front of 3,000
00:53:50.400 people, and I’ll be like, "You realize
00:53:52.559 what that song is really saying?" And
00:53:54.880 I’m like, "I know you’re talking about
00:53:56.480 the beat, but we have 16 girls on stage
00:53:59.839 who are 14 years old and three guys who
00:54:02.559 are 15 years old, and they’re going to
00:54:04.559 be moving and dancing the XYZ song." I’m
00:54:07.200 like, "We need to analyze these lyrics."
00:54:09.760 Yeah,
00:54:10.160 >> not that we’re prudish, right? But we
00:54:12.319 want to be responsible. We want to be
00:54:14.559 family friendly. We want to have a set
00:54:16.800 of values. And you know, most of those
00:54:19.520 events are fundraisers. So, we don’t
00:54:21.040 want to necessarily
00:54:22.160 >> upset anybody and be like, forget it
00:54:25.440 donating. So we do we research a lot of
00:54:28.319 that and it takes a lot you know like
00:54:30.559 okay well what about maybe songs from NF
00:54:32.800 or songs from POD or songs from Cutless
00:54:35.760 and you know or songs from Bob Dylan or
00:54:38.160 whoever or songs from Mumford and Sons
00:54:40.559 there’s plenty of positive hip cool
00:54:43.119 stuff that’s sure that’s out there you
00:54:45.119 know.
00:54:45.599 >> Well so if uh people watching this
00:54:48.960 wanted to
00:54:50.880 contribute
00:54:52.559 and and help out Solid Rock how can they
00:54:55.440 do it? They can call our office and find
00:54:57.359 out more info. They can ask for me. Our
00:54:59.920 office number is 6025229200.
00:55:04.000 And if they want to go to our website,
00:55:06.319 we have a volunteer form. They could
00:55:08.240 potentially volunteer. There’s a donate
00:55:10.319 button. But I would also say just
00:55:12.720 literally drop by and take a tour of our
00:55:14.800 center and just meet us and get engaged
00:55:17.200 and just see for yourself uh what we’re
00:55:19.680 doing. And if you feel compelled to be
00:55:21.359 involved, you know, God will move that
00:55:23.200 on your heart. It’s amazing how open you
00:55:26.079 guys are over there to to welcoming
00:55:29.119 people in and giving them a tour. We
00:55:30.800 Megan, as she mentioned, we’ve been over
00:55:32.559 there and you guys were like that. It’s
00:55:34.160 really everybody that you meet there is
00:55:36.240 so engaging and welcoming and and open
00:55:39.119 to people showing an interest.
00:55:41.040 >> Well, it must be I mean obviously is
00:55:42.640 coming down from Alice. We’ve never had
00:55:44.079 the pleasure of meeting him, but we’ve
00:55:45.839 met Dash multiple times.
00:55:47.520 >> Yeah.
00:55:48.079 >> And he’s just so sweet.
00:55:49.839 >> Great guy.
00:55:50.480 >> Just the sweetest guy.
00:55:52.880 sincere and
00:55:54.319 >> hard worker.
00:55:55.200 >> Yeah. Just they’ve got like this heart
00:55:57.440 of gold and you can feel it, you know,
00:55:59.440 and I think that that’s very difficult
00:56:02.559 with the, you know, celebrity status
00:56:05.520 that um Alice has had.
00:56:07.200 >> Yeah, Alice is a very nonp pretentious
00:56:09.200 celebrity and I’m, like I said earlier,
00:56:11.680 I’m very inspired by him and I’ve
00:56:14.160 learned so much from him in so many
00:56:16.559 different ways about marriage, about
00:56:19.520 faith, about business. He’s so smart,
00:56:22.240 but he’s so kind-hearted and he’s just
00:56:24.480 genuinely loves people. And I think that
00:56:26.559 a lot of that comes from his love of the
00:56:28.480 Lord.
00:56:29.200 >> I love that.
00:56:29.920 >> We love to say that in organizations,
00:56:32.240 you can tell the attitude comes from the
00:56:34.960 top down. It shows throughout an
00:56:37.119 organization.
00:56:38.160 >> And we have we have a great team around
00:56:40.160 us that really exhibits that faith and
00:56:42.480 exhibits that love to people. And and we
00:56:44.640 also have a lot of kids on staff that
00:56:46.160 have been part of our center for several
00:56:48.319 years. So, we’ll hire them as they
00:56:50.000 become older in life and highly skilled.
00:56:52.319 We have 10 young people on our staff
00:56:54.480 right now.
00:56:55.359 >> I love that. That’s beautiful. Well, I
00:56:57.839 think we should probably wrap it up. We
00:57:00.000 >> And get chicken salad.
00:57:01.200 >> And get some chicken salad. Celery or no
00:57:03.520 celery in
00:57:04.319 >> I like celery or celery. I like celery
00:57:06.799 with peanut butter separately, too.
00:57:08.480 >> Oh, that’s that’s good stuff. Thank you,
00:57:10.640 Randy, so much for coming out. We really
00:57:12.319 appreciate you giving us this time
00:57:13.680 today.
00:57:14.160 >> It’s been a lot of fun. Thank you for
00:57:15.440 having me.
00:57:16.079 >> Thank you. Once again, you have watched
00:57:18.640 a cross-examine with the Gerbers. Don’t
00:57:20.559 forget, if you’re injured, check out
00:57:22.319 Gerber Injury Law. We are happy to help
00:57:24.079 you. We are local and we know the city
00:57:26.960 you may have been injured in.