Band Life, BBQ, and Building Props: Inside Stretch’s Creative World

0:04 Hey, you're listening to The Adventure. And I'm Pudlin. On W4CY Radio. This is the Pipe Man here on The Adventure's Pipe Man W4CY Radio. And I'm here with Stretch. Like Stretch Armstrong? No, just like Stretch. It's interesting. Everyone always has to add something on there. I mean, there's Elvis, there's Prince, there's Madonna. They don't go, Princess Perfect or Elvis, my horse. So are you going to become a symbol next? Definitely not a sex symbol.

0:46 Why not? Didn't your parents tell you you could be anything you wanted to be? Icon. Let's go with icon rather than symbol. Okay, there we go. You are the icon. That's what I thought, too, because I was looking at all the posts you were doing on social media for Rock, La Jolla. I'm like, who the fuck is that icon? You know, I got the job from my buddy, Umla. Yeah. So how did you get involved with Rock, Oklahoma? So I have a band, Stretch. We're on the Spotify and all that stuff. And we played here last year. And I do special cooking events. I have restaurants in the Kansas City area. And they said, hey, man, why don't you come down and cook the VIP and have your band play at the same time? And it just all comes together, art, food, and music.

1:39 As it should be. So let's start with the food then. Tell me about your food. Why do they want you here to cook us food? So it's fun. I mean, I do pretty straightforward food, but it's good, simple. But when you're on tour, you want a little taste of that home. And we do some barbecue. We do some chicken wings. We do some simple stuff. But it's got tons of flavor. And they get off a tour bus, and these cats just want it. And they said, Stretch, how about you just do like a little experience for the artist? Not cater, but an experience. So we do that, and it was really super successful. It doesn't matter what band you were. You came, you got a little nibble, and wanted more. The catering guys actually got upset about it. I'm sure they did. It's fun.

2:22 I don't want to cook for everybody. We could, but just a little of the grinder slash stretch artist food. So what got you into cooking? I'm sorry? What got you into cooking? Oh, so I went to art school, and then I worked in the kitchens all through art school, and then made art during the day, and then worked in rock and roll clubs at night and cooked. And that's how I picked up girls and drank and ate and stayed alive. What a life. You should do a thing with Dave Grohl, because he likes to cook, too. He likes to barbecue. Yeah. Dave Grohl's a huge barbecue guy. I ran into him a few years ago down in Memphis in May.

3:03 I was down there with Traeger doing some stuff, and he was a pellet-smoking kind of guy at the same time. But he is. I'd love to do it. If he ever listens, hey, Dave, if you ever get this, just say, hey, Stretch, let's go do some shit. I know, right? Because I was at Dimebag Bash, and he was barbecuing there, and that was. Some good food. So you could have the. Stretch Your Grohl or some shit like that will make up a name. You could go on tour, you and Dave, and do the food thing at all the festivals. We could go do the food. We can do the meet and greets. M-E-A-T. There you go. Meet and greet with Dave Grohl and Stretch. I love it. They'll be like, Stretch, who's this guy?

3:45 So tell me about Stretch. If you were to describe your band without a genre, what would it be? We are an American 80s vibe rock and roll band with anthem style lyrics that everybody can relate to and chant with their fist pumping in the air. What's your favorite lyric that you've ever written? Oh. Blow Whiskey Kisses is one of my favorite lyrics. As well as, I got a new one in our new song, Sugar Shack. There's one. We just, we... We broke a kid's piggy bank. We robbed a kid. But it's okay because grandma's taking care. Nice.

4:32 And that was like a trap question because we were talking before and it came up with what your favorite lyric was. Now, what's your favorite lyric of a band that's not you? You know, one that comes up and it's so pertinent so many times. It's old school. It's 80s vibe. It's probably between Highway to Hell and... What the fuck? Not Stop Till Brooklyn. Beastie Boys.

5:12 Yeah, yeah, yeah. Beastie Boys... Fuck. No stop till Brooklyn. Bruce, what is it? No stop till Brooklyn. What is it that Beastie Boys did? The lyric I love that I can't even remember. Oh, my God. That's terrible that you love that lyric. You did. You stumped me. How about this one? This is my favorite lyric of all time because I. Just think it's brilliant. No sleep till Brooklyn. That's it. See? It took a little nudge there. You had to wake up. A little bit. Exactly. And then it came to you. I rubbed the shit out of my eyes. And I'm going to tell you what the lyric is, and then you tell me who the band is, and I'll bet you you don't get it.

5:55 All right. You're probably right. I'm not Eddie Trunk. Right? And I would love to stump him. Stump the Trump. Stump the Trump. Okay. So, it is... I can't drown my demons. They know how to swim. What's the time period? Recent times. The band has four words in their band name. Four syllables or four words? Four words. They start off as Deathcore. And then they turned into, like, getting more commercialized. And so they've done all different types of music now. And I don't think they've ever played Rock, Oklahoma. They're from Sheffield, England.

6:58 Where? They're from Sheffield, England. Four words to their band name. Wow. I can't think of anything. Okay. Let's see if you know even after I say it. Bring me the horizon. Don't know. See? Now you have to look them up. That sounds great. It comes off the song. Can You Feel My Heart, which trended on. TikTok recently after years. Really? Of the song being around. I thought it was like from Seven Dust. And then I was like, well, it's four words. Then it's like, ah, is it a weird Three Doors Down song? I don't know.

7:40 And that's only three words. Yeah. So there you go. You got me. What was the one band, the first band, that really got you into music? Frank Zappa. Why? He was so all over the place with lyrics everywhere. And the sound, the instruments, every time I listened to whatever he had, there was so many different levels of noise, if you will, in a good way. And I didn't know lyrics could be fun at the same time. They were, what I was brought up with was, and I mean, whether it was Rock Around the Clock, not that I'm that old, but... I love that upbeat tempo and kind of that 50s rockabilly stuff and whatever it was. But Frank Zappa's music took it to a whole other level of fun and serious, but having fun with music.

8:37 That's a great answer, because music should be fun. Like, there are bands out there that they don't look like they're having fun on stage. This ain't the business to be in if you're not having fun. And how do we have fun unless you're having fun? So what's fun about your live show? Oh, my world is fun. I mean, it's P-H-U-N, yo. It's capital P-H-U-N. We get to have great shows when my band's out there. It's a full-on performance. There's air cannons that launch candy. There's Slim Jims for our meat showers. There's kazoos. It's interactive. It's something everyone can relate to when they come to a stretch show. It's full-on participation.

9:20 It's not long, drawn-out, masturbating guitars. And they're only in those positions when they need to be. I mean, everyone gets their chance to shine. I am a singer, and I am the artist that puts it all together and helps, if not, write all the lyrics. And the band that's behind me, I mean, they're super talented. They need their time, and I am nothing without them. But it is all the band together. Everybody has to be in time. Everybody has to be having fun. And we have no movement for drama. That last word, that was the best of all. Because nothing's worse than drama in anything. In life.

10:01 Much less music. It's true. Have fun and no drama. Exactly. Alright, so you like to cook. You like to play music. If you were to give one more thing that is your passion, what is it? Well, technically I'm a sculptor by trade. I'm an artist. Visual. Nice. And I go to my studio every day. I make everything for my restaurants. I build really cool shit. We make all the merch for the band. I build all the stage stuff and props for the band. I love fabricating and building stuff, whether it's in steel or wood or plastic or glass, whatever. And I have the facility to do it. I love building shit. Very cool. So now, hard question. Out of those three, if you could only choose one, which would it be?

10:48 I'd have to say sculpture and the reason for that is I can do that without the help of a team now I can produce my own music and you know I don't play instruments like I need just like I don't in certain things but as a visual artist I can create and I can do that in any medium anywhere in the world at any time to get. Away and I I ask that question because obviously you have passion for all three. So I'm not even advocating eliminating any because I think they do all go hand in hand.

11:31 You know? Art is art. And you're expressing art in multiple different ways and I think most artists do. I think a lot of people don't realize. That's why I like to find out the passions of artists because they don't realize that they all have multiple passions. People think that Oh, if you're into music, that's all you're into if you're in a band. No, we all have different things that we love in life and different parts of our personality. I mean, that's what makes them great. And, you know, your visual artist, it's experiences, whether you're a musician, then your experience is, And, I mean, we were talking about Roll earlier. He loves barbecue. That's his passion. I know a lot of, you know, Brian Wheat, bass player, but also is a painter and a photographer. There's a lot of people that have that other side of the brain that's very dominating. Sometimes it comes out as music. Sometimes it comes out as visual art. Sometimes it comes out in the cooking. And I'm a huge fan and a firm believer that art, food, and music cross all cultural boundaries no matter where you are in the world, whether you speak the language or not.

12:31 And what do you have at pretty much every music festival? Music, food, and art. You know, they all work together. Exactly. Hand in hand in hand. Well, I don't know if we want to go there with the hands. Or maybe we do. The trifecta of hands. He's very handsy, ladies and gentlemen. It would be nice to have three hands. It would. It would be helpful. You know, in case, you know, you have to do it two-handed and one of them gets tired, you have one to take over. See, I completely thought if I was walking through a crowd, I could high-five three people at once. See? There you go. It's all perception. It is. It's all perception.

13:11 So. Here's my octi, friend. So what's next for your band? What's going on after you leave Rock, Oklahoma? Finish up the new album. It should be coming out hopefully in the next couple months, which is super cool. We're going on tour. We have a couple shows with the Ace Frehley Band in October. And then a Florida tour with Scotty Austin, some of the cats from Three Doors Down, and Saving Abel, and about three other bands. Where in Florida? We're opening for Skinnerd in Port Charlotte. We're in Sanford on the 12th. I think we got down...

13:52 I don't have a tour schedule in front of me, but I know... Oh, here it is. It magically appeared. Let's see. We will be at the theater at West End Saloon in Sanford, Port Charlotte Fairground with Skinnerd, Rock House Winterfest in Largo. We'll be at Captain Hiram's in Sebastian. And then we head up to Georgia, to Pub 96 in Bonaire, Mad Life Stage, and then all the way back up to the Castle Theater. And I don't know, about a 12-day run. That's a lot of Florida dates. Yeah. Nobody even likes to come to Florida. Yeah, no one likes going down there unless they're moving from the East Coast, Northeast.

14:35 I know, right? Boca Vista Raton or something. Yeah. The mouth of the rat. I had a buddy just move down there into the... What are they called? The Villages. Oh, boy. He's test driving it down there. He's old. You know, he's my age. He's not that old, but, you know, when he stopped to pick up his rock ports on the way down, I knew something was up. Is he into cougars or something? I hope so. Because he'll be like the youngest one there. He is. It's easy hunting season. Exactly. He's going to put his fake rumble strips for the walkers. Right? Right. Oh, man. So what would you say is the biggest reason people should check out your band?

15:21 If you want to hear great music and be entertained, come to a stretch show. It's exciting. It's new. We hear it all the time. You can't put your finger on where the history comes from, but you can relate to a couple bands that may have influenced you, whether it was a Kiss, an Alice Cooper, a GWAR, a Jell-O, Green Jell-O, or Green Jelly. Ooh, Jell-O! Or, you know... It's just a theater show. I mean, we are active and interactive, and it's fun, man. It's fun. If you want to have fucking fun, go to a stretch show. And Green Jell-O sucks. And Green Jell-O sucks.

16:06 This is not bought to you by Jell-O. It should be fun. Music should be fun for all of us. We got too much bullshit going on. In the world. We need to escape into music and have fun and forget about all that. And that's what I love about your band is, you know... If you're having a good time, we're having a good time. If you're not having fun, it doesn't matter how good you are. All problems go. Away when I'm on stage. It doesn't matter about loans or leases or mortgages or banks or family. Everything goes away and you are one in touch with your audience. And I smile the whole fucking time. If I fuck up, I look over and I giggle. I mean, we have beach balls that are actually meatballs that we throw out to the crowd. You know, I bring out Bob Ross on the stage every now and then. I mean, it's, you know, it's fun. I mean, that's it.

16:59 So, what band have you seen that, besides your own, that you thought was the most fun band you ever saw? Always loved GWAR. GWAR is always great. Also good friends of mine, but always a great show. You know, I just saw Stray Cats the other night. And They're ancient, but they still sounded great. They were fucking great, man. The Pink Floyd show I saw a few years back. Great show, great stage production. I've walked out of numerous concerts. Not that the shows were bad, but not entertaining for me. Yeah. It's kind of sometimes equated to like watching football on the big screen. You go out to the stadium and watch it on a jumbo screen or you can stay at your house.

17:42 Exactly. You know, and I think the same thing. If you're at a festival like this, stop watching it through your phone and just be part of it. You know, you can watch it at home. You know, you didn't even have to film it. Plenty of other people are filming it. I take photos to remember where I was, to document a time. I very rarely videotape. No one ever goes and watches that shit. I know, right? Who goes back and watches it? Who has that kind of time? Exactly. And you probably, these people, some of them, they take the video of the whole thing, like, do they ever watch it again? I highly doubt it, you know? It's not like a Grateful Dead show when you're recording and you can still... You know, relive it. Hey, check out this video. It's all jiggly and somebody's fathead in the front of them. And, you know, there's a cloud in my thumb. And, yeah, great.

18:29 It's funny because you mentioned that because we have Slayer headlining here at Rock, Oklahoma, which is my favorite all-time ever band. But when I was a teenager, I would go to Slayer shows on a Friday night and Dead shows. On a Saturday day. People have different vibes, like different music. You know, that's a message I like to give. Like, the gatekeeping days are stupid. You know, music is music. Let's just have fun with good old rock and roll. Now, you like the 80s vibe. What's your favorite thing about the 80s vibe? Chanting with somebody. When there's a movement that's happening and everyone's got their fists in the air and they're all in dynamic flow. I mean, you can jam in... It's fun.

19:22 But having everybody in the moment... I don't care if it was a ZZ Top song or a George Thurgood tune or whatever was coming through. A Tesla, for that matter. Everyone knows the Tesla stuff. But any of that stuff from the A. Warren. Cherry Pie. Whatever the stuff is. It's everybody just smiling and singing together. It's not just... What I don't like about today's metal music... I'm afraid these kids are gonna get hurt I mean I came from stage diving and everything else it's fun but now this is just looking like martial arts yet well. As somebody that still moshes I hate that shit what you're talking about the whole windmill shit and all that mill yeah No, that's not what it's about. And yeah, you're going to get hurt. Like, I don't want to be out there with somebody doing that. Now, that's what I love about sometimes.

20:15 A ska pit because it's just pure fun. Yeah. And it's like you're just smiling the whole time. It's funny you mentioned stage diving. So a few months back, I was at Milwaukee Metal Fest and I sent my youngest daughter a video of violence was playing, and there was a lot of stage diving going on. So I sent it to my daughter, and she responds with, oh, is that how you knocked all your front teeth out? So, moral of. That story was, yes, but, I climbed up on a 20-foot Marshall stack and did a swan dive, and mid-air, the crowd moved.

20:58 And that was, uh-oh. Yeah. The good news is. I didn't ruin the show because I hit the ground on the last note of the last song of the show. Timed perfectly. Exactly. So I just made the show that much better. And you made a story. I mean, that's what it's about when you go to these live shows. Seeing and telling the stories and the history. I think that's where people... When they used to save their tickets and categorize them or put them on their wall or whatever, now they're trying to do it with their phone, but it's never going to be the same. Yeah. Never will be the same. There's a new app. You now have to take it, and it creates a ticket stub for your wall.

21:41 Nice. That's a good idea. Retro stub. How about the old days when we would camp out to go buy our tickets? Yep. I remember.... Camping out for Black Sabbath tickets, Mob Rules Tour. And so I was up at the very front. Some guy says to me, hey, can you buy me my tickets and I'll smoke you out at the show. I'm a teenager. That's all you had to offer me. Where was that show? When? Where? Oh, that was at the Los Angeles Forum. And so. I went to that show. And, of course, the guy was sitting next to me because I bought his tickets.

22:26 And he did honor his word. And to this day, that's probably the highest I've ever been in my life. He had some Maui Waui shit. And then I hear Ryan James Dio talking. And I thought it was God talking to me. It was one of the greatest shows ever, man. I love it. My first one I camped out for, my sister's two years older. It was in Philadelphia at the GFK, Big Outdoor Festival. It was Steve Miller, Joe Walsh, Santana, Fleetwood Mac, around 1981 or 2. And we left that night after Saturday Night Live played. And it was when Steve Martin did King Tut for the first time. And then we drove down to my mom's station wagon with the wood side and parked out there. So I was in line with my mom. You know, it was so dense, the line.

23:24 You could pick your feet up, you know, and got our tickets and all the neighborhood kids. And, yeah, that was the show. That was my first campout show. Nice. You know, that's what I love about Rock, Oklahoma. Those campgrounds are insane out there. Like the most insane campgrounds I've seen at any festival anywhere. Have you gone through the campgrounds? I'm also here for Rock, Oklahoma brought me in to judge the best campsite out here. So they've taken me around twice now. I just got back. And there's some wild stuff in it. So I've got to pick a campground. We'll announce it tomorrow on Saturday. And then Saturday night, a bunch of the sponsors are going to get booze and food. And we're going to go to that campsite and have a big old throwdown party after the last band. But, I mean, there's... I mean, I can't mention any of the names because that means I'm leaning towards them because I can't remember. But I have bracelet on top of bracelet of these rubber bracelets they give me for every place I went. And I have stacks of them now.

24:28 And they're creative. And, I mean, I've been a Burning Man. And, you know, early Burning Man was nice. You ever been to a Burning Man? It's the only one I haven't been to. Dude, I was there in 96 and 2000. It's totally different now. But LEDs have allowed campgrounds to become electric. You know, I love fire spinners and all that and the hula hoops and shit, but LED lights and what's going on with them and the flat screen TVs. I actually had to have someone, I pulled some lights off. Fucking idiots had lighting like around their pool. Like electric Houston kind of shit. Hey, you fucking drunks. This is not good. It's also, you know, what else is stretching? It's also Safety Bob.

25:10 Right? Well, did Safety Bob go to buses, boobs, and buttholes? Yes. I did not have my picture taken in the butthole, but we were there. I think we were there last night, and we just stopped by as well. One of them today, we stopped by. I think we got, it might have, no, it was a different one. We did shots of Jell-O and a shrimp. Syringe? Syringe. Syringe. Syringe. And we did pickle shots at one and another one today, and a beer and some tequila, and now we're back on water. Did you do a strip show for everybody at the big old red bus? So, last night, I did some pole dancing. I did.

25:53 I thought I broke my toe. I was there, you know, to give charity money. Yeah. But now I was up on that pole for a little while. I'm sure those photos will pop up. I got phelped. Nice. I do find that at that site, more guys get on the stripper poles than women. I think guys just, they want to become strippers. It's, hey, dreams are dreams. I'm not going to step on anyone's. Exactly. Look the other way. I don't know. Or get your dollar bills out. Exactly. Oh, that's right. It's a cash-free environment. Only use your. How do you tip the girls with cash free? Do you just put your credit card in there?

26:37 The whole thing, man. No tips. Just put your credit card in there. Do whatever you want, honey. You're going to get it somehow. Do whatever you want, honey. So what else do you want to tell everybody about your band, about your cooking, about any of that that we haven't covered already? Well, follow on the Stretch Artist, you know, the Spotify page. If you guys are in Kansas City, stop by our music venue, Grinders KC, and or the restaurant. And just support local music. Doesn't have to be me. Just support local music and live music. Everybody needs that. Don't be trying to get on the pest list all the time. Just fucking pay the ten bucks. There it is.

27:17 No better words could be said. You have to support live music, support bands, or else they won't be around because the The outlets are not supporting them. We need to support them. Buy merch. That's how a band gets to the next game. Buy merch. So buy the stretch merch. You got some cool merch. They can't listen to my show anymore unless they buy your merch. Yeah, that's it. And everybody, if my Spotify page quadruples today, everybody will get a free t-shirt from Buck Jerry. That message has not been approved by anybody else, but it might be true.

27:58 Hey, man, thanks a lot for this. This is awesome. Hey, thanks for being on the Adventures of Pipe Man. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Pipe Man on W4CY radio.