PipemanRadio Interviews Punk Rock Saves Lives at Punk Rock Bowling XXV

0:04 Hey, you love them too, Yes, that's true. For see why for you you? This is the pipe Man here on the Adventures of Pipe Man W four c Y Radio, and I'm here with hi. I'm Rob Rushing from punk Rock Saves Lives. Nice, Well, you save lives with punk Rock saves lives because punk rock does. And Angela, my partner in crime at punk Rock Bowling, saved your life by doing your hair. Yeah, give me a little fresh shave just now, so my mohawk is uh, my mohawk is standing up a little better, and my head's gonna be cooler because it's freaking hot out here.

0:50 I know. Right, you look like a new man. You look like that, like you're like one of the kids. Yeah. As long as I can keep my voice. You know, that's that's important. So for people that don't know what the organization does and what it's all about, let's hear the story. All right. I'll give you the quick pitch. We're a nonprofit founded in twenty nineteen that you tours with bands and festivals, encouraging punks. To do good things. Those good things fall typically into wellness and equality initiatives. We do a lot of marrow drives to save lives from cancer. We ask you to get your cheek swab at a show.

1:32 If you ever match someone independently, I mean not independently, what's the word I'm looking for on a cellular level that you could possibly donate to them. They call you and you might can donate stem cells or marrow to save a life. We do harm reduction at every show. We have an awesome little box at the table every show anywhere, from earplugs all the way to narcan free. One of the big things that festivals sunscreen. Like literally sitting especially here today. I mean, I don't know about you, but if you woke up after walking around a festival with no sunscreen, ono. Not good, especially if you're like a goth, not a good feeling, like a pasty white you know.

2:18 Yeah, Irish white guy whoa watch out. Yeah that's bad news. That's a bad combination. We also work deeply to try to get mental health resources out to people. We're building a database of mental health professionals around the country too. We can call in a crisis with someone. If someone calls us, we can get them to some therapy, maybe get them to see them that first time for free. And then they can work out from there and get the real tools. And then we even have a sober Sober Curious group if people need that. We don't preach sobriety, but if you call.

2:58 Us and need that, we've got not only people that can talk to you. We just sent our first musician through Bradley's House, which is a rehab center built by the family of Bradney Bradney Noel, the Noel Foundation lead singer Sublime that we lost back in the nineties. Yeah, they saved lives from addiction in his honor. I just saw them last week at Rockville with Jacob jab I know something like that. It sounds just like him. It's it's okay. And what great frontman for being new.

3:39 Oh he's been. He's been doing uh stuff for about two three four years. Phenomenal singer. Yeah, just a great kid too. So and does he does he set an example based on what happened. To his father. I would think he would have to. Yeah, I would know what I mean. He's he might have never actually known his father, but he's lived with what not only the legacy music wise that you know, Sublime might not be your taste, but they were a lot of people's taste, and that kid has had those expectations probably dumped on him his entire life totally, and he hasn't let it drown him, which is what's cool about.

4:25 It's unbelievable. I would have never thought he would have came into the lineup like that. I really don't think he wanted to be the singer of Sublime at first. He wanted to He basically set his own thing out there and got that going, and then I think he got to the point where the legacy was ready and he was ready to try the legacy. And it seems great. I mean, it's nothing against Rome. I'm glad Rome kept Sublime alive all those years, if that's your thing, But having Bradley in the fold is like really like looking. At his dad, Yeah, yeah, amazing. So yeah, totally, And I think it's a great thing. And I think it might also speak to people just in general that here's a kid that could have ended up who knows what, you know, like, and here he is and he appears to me to be a pretty stable kid that is really you know, following his own dreams, not just his father's dreams.

5:29 And I can I can see. I can definitely tell you that his his in Bradley's family have been amazing to Jacob and they're amazing people. So he's had, he's been able to have an amazing backsource. And that's not we. Don't all have that. No, I didn't. There's probably half the people out here that come from broken homes, if not more. Yeah, my idea of the help you're giving people now is sleeping on the floor in tell Hell and Hollywood. That was what I That's what I did, you know, and that wasn't help. I was honestly lucky. My mom and my stepfather amazing and let me be me, they got a little disappointed when I, you know, got into college and decided to go into rock and roll instead of in punk rock, instead of uh maybe being a doctor or something. Right, it's uh, but they're incredibly proud of me and over the last uh counting my time with love, hope, strength and then becoming punk rock saves lives.

6:39 They they're they're really. Proud of the the legacy I'm trying to build and encourage good and I can't do any of this without my wife, without our I mean, you're sitting here and you see our amazing volunteers. Nobody here is I mean, we have two and a half employees in America. Our entire payroll is one hundred twenty thousand dollars. Wow, so three people making one hundred and twenty thousand. That's it not easy. That's what I love exceptarate. You know, there's so. Many organizations that all the money goes towards people's salaries and stuff. That's why I like organizations like yours. We didn't want it to be that way.

7:20 My wife and I are two of the are the are the founders and the two that are out here on the road the most. And then we have Jay. If anybody remembers Larry and his Flask, amazing crazy crazy folk band did tons of warp tours. Jacob, I mean on Jamon, Jacob. We're talking to Jacob, I know, right. Jamon from Larry and his Flask is our behind the scenes employee, does all of our advancing on the tours and everything. And he's actually my stage. Manager here for are after shows at Hoggs and Heifer's. That's cool at you know, it's funny. I'm looking at the logo on your shirt. It's tripping me out because unlike you, I have not tattoos. But there was one I was going to get when I was a teenager, and that was the New York Hardcore tattoo, and.

8:09 We definitely riffed on that. The hardcore scene is I'm a I'm an amazing proponent of PMA and you know we can go to me. It goes back to Joe Strummer and Bad Brands, the Alarm, everything. But then then the next generation you got Toby Morse, you got H two you know, Toby and H two O and bringing the pm A, Brian and the Souls, you know, bouncing souls always bring the pm A. Uh, just so many bands. I mean, my ultimate, my ultimate favorite band of all time is seven. Seconds Nice I worked for I worked. For The Alarm, one of my favorite bands of all time for basically fifteen to seventeen years.

8:53 Yeah, and I charged about that. We just lost we just lost my mentor, Mike Peters a few weeks ago. It's been really sad, but also we're looking back now and starting to celebrate, celebrate what we did together. You know, there's there's probably five hundred thousand people in America and in Europe on the Marrow Registry because of his he wanted to find cancer on his terms and he fought it unbelievably for thirty years. Yeah, and we gave so many people a chance in that and we still are every day with us. That is our That's why we still do Marrow drives is to help people beat leukemia. So but to the Kevin Seconds thing, this is what I love about punk rock Bowling. Walking out of my hotel this morning to go get we we got up early this morning. I went I went to bed after working last night with Bucco nine to if.

9:50 I went to bed at four am. I believe they came off stage at three thirty. It was an amazing, amazing experience, but uh uh, I had to get up. We got up. We had made plans with us vets here. Today's today's Memorial Day. Guys. It's uh you know, I'm not I'm anti war. I'm not anti soldier. I am the same exact way. Okay, I don't even understand why people are anti soldier. They are anti war. They don't choose the wars. They're doing what I'm not willing to do to defend our freedom and what have you. But they're told what to do. They're not making any decision.

10:33 Yeah. Well, and there's another there's another way to look at this too. How many of our punk rock kids would have an avenue. In life had they not had the military. True, they maybe they didn't have the best home life, Maybe they didn't have any money. Maybe, and the military gave them a structure, gave them, gave them money, gave you know, if they can do a certain amount of time, they get the GI Bill. To pay for college if that's what they wanted for a. Lot of them can buy a house because they did some military service. I can't fault someone if that's your that's your only avenue. Yeah. I hate, absolutely despise that they have to go to war, especially in modern times, over commercialism.

11:19 Yeah, and that's all it is. And it's money now, it has nothing to. Do with My grandmother when I was a little kid, told me about this book that she read and this is then, you know, talking like fifty years ago, and she said the book talked about how every war ever in history was planned, A had time planned, who was going to win, who was going to lose, and who was going to get want money and power. Yeah, that's amazing and base drum just started kicking. So if we kind of muted it out on you there, that's the fun part about being in a music festival. There's the sound checks, it's you know, it's so like, you know, be anti war and be against the you know, the powers that be just advancing their initiative, but don't fault the kid that got stuck in the middle of it.

12:14 And the soldier's brainwashed anyway. They think they're doing things for another reason than what's actually going on there. And you know they can be sold one path and send down another in one but walking completely back I'm good at Like, that's what's good about a conversation like this, as you can go in and out. Walking out of the hotel. This morning, I look over and I hear my name and I look over and it's Kevin second stand of there, and he was like really tired from doing the museum and playing their show and everything, and he goes, hey, Rob, I'm flying home, and he gave me a big hug, and I said, Kevin, I just want to remind you, man, I know you're the most modest dude in the world, but we're doing what we're doing with punk rock saves lives and trying to be the examples we're trying to be based on stuff I listened to you talk.

13:08 About when we were kids. Nice and he's not much older than me, so I say we were kids. But you know when I heard seven seconds at fourteen, fifteen years old, that changed the world. Yeah, And you didn't have to be I grew up in the Deep South. You didn't have to be racist, you didn't have to be sexist, you didn't have to be better than someone. You could walk together, rock together, and and somehow here I am at fifty five, trying to continue that going. You know, I love it. So it's a pretty it's a pretty cool thing to run into your heroes and they don't let you down. It's true because it doesn't always happen. There's sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't.

13:49 But a lot of times it's just punk scene. Yeah, a lot of times this punk scene, especially punk rock bowling, you walk into, you walk into idols every day I've had I've had the dear fortune of becoming really good friends with Greg Norton over the last few years, and Husker Doo once again, you get into seven seconds, you get into Black Flag, you get into sst Oh who's there? Yeah, and what a great set lash. This guy's destroyed. It was so good. His band is just he's got some. Great You gotta see them live because justice ear music that doesn't tell the whole story. I mean I was there to witness it, and I was like, they are freaking good. Yeah, and just the energy.

14:39 Yeah, I'm watching Greg just jump up and down and played never miss a never miss a chord on that base. And and Derek on drums is just you know, he did so many of the Social Distortion albums. Yeah, he's just a machine and it's perfect. And he's the groove in the the pocket is just perfect. And then they brought in the second guitar player now from Soul Asylum. Yeah, which is a weird you wouldn't think, but man. I was kind of shocked because I'm like, I want to say, when I was in reviewing them, I'm like, Soul Asylum, why'd you bring that in the play? And not for a negative reason. It's just so out in left field.

15:22 You know, they were called Husker Duo Junior when they first came out. Oh, let's see, I didn't know that. Yeah, when they came out of Minneapolis, them and the Replacements kind of got pigeonholed as Huskar Doo wanna bees. Wow. They both ended up being legends in different avenues. You know, the Replacements. I'm one of those people that didn't believe in gatekeeping, and I think the Replacements were a punk band. I think they became incredible musicians and everything which punk bands can be. Yeah, well, let's still believe in the three courts, no waiting thing. Well, that's how you start, because you'll know, the beauty of punk rock was you could be a kid start a band and not know what the hell you were doing about. Think about how you learn over together.

16:04 Think about like a Willhelm scream and we could we could name twenty more. Day Tonight Cigar. They're such amazing musicians, every single one of them. And they're so technical, but the heart of it is straight up punk rock. Yeah, and that's so badass. Yeah. And you know, I gotta tell you too, as far as the punk rock scene, you talked about gate keeping. I was just talking about this with Angela walking in. You know, I moved to la from Jersey nineteen eighty, like that was that. Was the point.

16:45 That was the time in the LA scene. That was the explosion and there was so much gatekeeping. Okay, so the first club show I ever went to in my life where I came out of that thing. I was like, oh my god, I'm never going to a real concert again was at the Roxy and the Sunset Strip Motley Crue before they had an album, when they were. More horror punk horror punk. Yeah. Yeah, they were trying to like the Roxy on fire. They wanted to be an Alice Cooper show exactly exactly, and I was like, oh my god. But then you know, I found Slayer, and of course all my Slayer friends you gotta burn your Motley Cruise ship. That ship don't come here.

17:25 Slayer came from punk rock, and they will tell you that. Well, Dave and Jeff were punk, Kerry was metal, and Tom didn't even really get into metal until he got the Slayer, which the most. Which is no voice for like brutal metal. Just was not not a metal head. So you know, Bella Donno of Anthrax not wasn't a metal head. It's it amazes me. But I was telling this story. Okay, so I was a long hair. I was a metalhead. That loved punk, but I couldn't go to any of the punk shows. Like, there are bands I've seen in the past ten years doing my radio coverage that I've interviewed them, and I'm like, you know, it's like a dream come true for me because I was never allowed to go to your shows in the eighties. I'm talking bands like Discharge, GBH, Exploited, But.

18:18 Those were the bands that really brought metal into punk. Yeah, exactly. It led to crossover, it led to dried to you know, and. I remember when dri I grew their hair out. I'm like, yes, but a lot of people were like, but you know what people can involve, People could be I I I've said this before on interviews. I'm sure I was a good kill. I No, I was a gigue. I'm sure I was. I never liked it, but I was. Yeah. I remember saying, that's not punk, that's not punk. I made fun of my wife for liking good Charlotte. Right. What I did that was a boy band. You know what I did the Waddie Okay, it was at Punk Rock Bowling, a cup club show, right before he was going on stage, and I knew exactly what I was doing.

19:05 The last question I asked him before him going on stage was so, waddie, will you think of pop punk? Who did I set him off? Man? He went out on stage and he's like, pook. You know, I was just sitting there laughing my ass off. But I was that same person, Like I just brought my grandson last weekend at Rockville. His favorite band is Green Day. I brought him into the Green Day pit, and I'm one of those people. It was like Green Day now they're pop punk, but they weren't in the beginning. And I've gone to a couple of their live shows. I'm like, it's a really good live show.

19:46 I have to admit they are really great brand, and I can I don't really know Mike. Or Billy Joe, but Trey's an awesome human man. Well see, and that's all that counts, right, Yeah. And I you know, all these years of being in the nonprofit version of the music world, is I weigh as much if a band are good people. And this is how I overcame gatekeeping. I started meeting. Bands because I work with a little bit of everybody to try to save lives. And you know, I made fun of you know, to my wife for loving Good Charlotte. Now I've I've hung with Benji, I've hung you know, and fucking good guys. And they are a band, right, and they they did the music that they liked and if you don't like it, you don't like it. But that's fine, you don't have to don't judge. And I feel that because I picked on my wife about Good Charlotte.

20:44 So I can tell this story because. I tried to learn. I tried to evolve. And if that's the you know, the old thing. If we can all learn something every. Day, no doubt, and in this day and age, with everything going on right now, that has got to be the encourage. I think it's better nowadays that we don't have the gatekeeping and we were all one big happy community because listen, I always saw it was stupid. I'm at a Goura high school. There were like three metal heads, three punks, and we were all getting a shit kicked out of us by the jocks for being different. But yet we fought each other. I somehow said all together, right, Yeah, I played. A bunch of sports, but I was the weird skater kid in the popular I'm all that too.

21:27 Like it was it was weird because I liked metal too, and I'm you know, I I'm I went to high school from eighty four to eighty eight, and punks and metal heads were not supposed to like each other. Yeah, And I went and I lay to eighty four was high school for me. And I liked both musics me too, you know, And I didn't know why everybody couldn't get along. And I'll even go step further. Like one of my bros he plays in a few punk bands now to this day, but he was a metal head first. And I found this album at his house one day that he was hiding from all of us, and I pulled out him, like what the fuck is this? To this day, it's one of my favorite all time ever albums. It was Adam and the ens Kings of the Wild Frontier.

22:19 What a fucking amazing album, right, you did say it. You could say it is a fucking amazing. But I gave him so much shit, like what was this new wave bullshit? But it was punk, like I love that jungle punk, like I love bow wow wow. There the drums in it. I always, as you noticed already, I threw the alarm into I would say and The Alarm were called Class Junior when they came out right, that was the disc Even Joe Strummer dissed them, you know, But then Joe Schummer later on admitted, I actually really liked the Alarm's music. Well, this was just being a punk speaking of in Maine. That there's somebody I've interviewed a few times now who were now friends, and she's been here at Punk Rock Bowling.

23:04 She was a new waiver and so I said to her in her interview in one of our interviews, once I got friendly with her, I'm like, you know, back in high school, I'm gonna say something I never said before. I wasn't allowed to like you, but I really did, and now I'm here forty years later to admit it. And it was Josie Cotton. Oh Josie, and. What a great human being she is, you know. But it's like back in the day was so fucking stupid. Oh their new wave don't like them, you know in the metal community. You know, it's and then here's a good one, good story, you know, posers on Melrose. So I wanted to get my spikes there. Back in the day, metal heads weren't allowed to go there. Okay, so I got I recruited my punk friends. I'm like, hey, and they were friends with the owner. And this is a story I was just telling. Outside. I'm like, bring me a poser. That's where I want to get my spikes.

24:02 And so we go there. Thirty seconds i'm there, the owners pull my friends aside and my friend comes over me. He goes, we need to leave, and I'm like why. He goes, I'll tell you outside, we need to leave right now. And he told me outside, He's like, since we were friends with the owners, they gave us some courtesy. And he came and talked to me and said, listen, I'm gonna give you a curzy. You better get that long hair here within thirty seconds or we're gonna kick his ass. And that's how it was. It was stupid because the music was so close, but. It, you know it. We all have to evolve, we all have to learn. We have to and if you don't like it, you don't like it, but don't diss on someone else for like.

24:46 It, no doubt. And I used to get offended even though I am one two, because I like also like hippie music and stuff. They always called the long hairs, the metal heads, hippies, and we would be like, we're not fucking hippies, you know. We still get the nihilists, you know, side of punk when they they come into our booth and punk. Rock saves lives. This is bullshit, you know. And I'm like, I don't care, Like, if that's the. Way you feel, we'll probably save their life. Yeah, and I'm like, walk home, you know, and they you know, I'm not violent in any way, but I'm not a small guy. And I do have the luxury of having resting Henry Rowlins's face, and I can I can look mean when I'm not smiling, and I might be the happiest guy in the world.

25:40 But if. Sometimes you can just cross your eyes and look mean and they'll walk away. Well, you know what. I don't throw a punch, but. Well you know what I pull off because I'm a small guy. So I'm the guy that'll go up to six foot four, four hundred pounds dude and look him dead in the eye, and I will kill you right where you stand. They're like, this dude must be fucking crazy. Let's be crazy. I'm backing down. Exactly, and then the pit Okay, like, I hate the big dudes that go in the pit and try to hurt and main people, because that's not what it's about. It's a release of aggression and a therapy. No doubt, and my uh, you know, my little bike, I'm gonna fuck that dude up because I'm gonna come around and I'm gonna lunge down like Mike Tyson, come up with elbow and be on the other side of pit.

26:27 You won't even know what hit him, but only because he's going and try to take out little people like pick on somebody your own size. Crowd crushers and stuff like that. There's no place for it. Now. I get the release of. The the newer hardcore fans that do the I don't know karate or whatever it is. Oh yeah, I hate. I don't like it. I feel like I'm gonna get kicked in the face. I don't like it at all. But I get what they're doing right, and good on them. Just don't hit me. Here's what I think the pit's all about, and always have, Like you were saying, it's therapy and it's a healthy way to get an aggression. If it weren't for the pet pit, i'd probably be in jail for kicking somebody's ass. Yeah, and a perfect example, so you mentioned in Narkhan. So my oldest grandson. Last September, I was at a festival, got a phone call, he passed, He odeed.

27:31 Yeah, with where we're fighting against. With Narkhan on the table next to him, Like because you know a a they think they have it under convern. You can't Narkhan yourself, right, And. That's what he was thinking. That's what he was thinking. But you know, so then you know, I left the festival and then it was riot Fest when it happened, I'm sure I was there, and so I left. I came back for the last day for Slayer. The funeral was definitely was there. Yeah, the funeral was the day before, And I just went into that Slayer pit and let all of my pain out and left it in the pit because it is it's not about hurting anament people.

28:15 I hate that, Like, you don't go in there. To hurt at jostling around and getting it and next ingon it might be lifted up above the crowd. You might be if someone I mean, we we preach and we even have a shirt. It's you know, the rules of the pit. If someone falls down, we picked them up. Yeah, And that's a motto for punk rock, Safe lives. But we didn't come up with it. It's it's been there forever, but it's true. Yeah, And why is it not a rule. It's a rule of the pit. Why is it not a rule in life? Right? So, if you see someone down, help them. That's why we try to get so. Much narcan into the scene. If somebody's got it in their pocket and somebody collapses.

28:56 It doesn't have to be someone at the punk show. You could be walking to your hotel and. There's a poor, unfortunate soul on the ground and if someone didn't take five seconds to give them narcan, they might be gone. Yeah, or you. And you know, not all of them want to be saved. I mean obviously, but let's let's do our best to do what we can. But they may have wanted to be slaved ten years from now when they realize they did one. Now, there's so many people that would tell you that I thought I would be dead at twenty seven. I'm sure glad, I'm not right. You know, I never thought I was gonna make it past thirty. I mean, we all in this.

29:37 You know, musicians and punk rockers, metal heads, we all say that and we probably did a lot of damage to our bodies when we were that young, and we all are living with it now. I mean, I've been on my feet for. Probably sixty hours the last three days and it's only we got two more to go, and uh man, I wish my knees didn't feel like they do. But you know it's but I wouldn't change a minute of every every scar, every every broken rib, every whatever. You know what I mean, It's not you can't. We've all like that's part of this learning thing.

30:22 I was talking about getting getting hurt or releasing something or falling and breaking your hand in a pit or something like that, getting in getting in a fight with some Nazis or you know what I mean, and you might get hurt, but you'll be starting from it eventually. Well, my best bro who also passed away like the year before, we used to say, like in the later years, like remember when you used to get into those fights that you knew you were going to get your ass kicked, but you did it anyway, and that that live is really what you did. Like I, especially my side, I went into plenty of fights that I knew I was gonna get my ass kicked, but I did. Anyway, is this Billy Betts and the maid Men. I think zell Yeah a wonderful new.

31:08 Band from Atlanta. Guys, go check out these kids. I think since it started, we probably should goes up it. Uh, please come check us out at every festival. We're trying to be just at about everything. We tour with a lot of amazing bands anywhere on the spectrum from bowling for Soup to We've toured with Basside, We've toured with. Matt Gutties, We've toured with Voodo, Ghost Gos, We've We. Try to tour with every type of genre, every type of music and do some good. And you can always find us at punk Rock Saveslives dot Org. Reach out, let's do let's do some good together. If you need help, we'll do our best.

31:51 To help you out. I love it. I love what you do. I love it. I love what you do, and you guys really are saving lives. We're trying. So thank you for having us and I can't wait to hear this and hopefully. You pick someone up. And I hope we got enough message out there that you can change a lot more lives. And thanks for being on the Adventures of Pipeman. Cheers. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Pipeman on w for CUI Radio