Poorman's 15 Minutes of Fame

“So it's technique and soul. And you take your technique and then you put your soul on the line. That's what I'm here for, and that's what you do, and that's what we do. And, LSD with the great Gigi on vocals. She's a superstar, and Damien on bass, Oscar on drums, and my son, Eden, on guitar and vocals. Me and Jesse (of the Perkins/Jesse Hughes duo, Piece and Quiet) will see you on May 10. I'll be...

“Alright. We are back with Shant from Archie’s Ice Cream. He has an ice cream truck that he takes backstage to concerts, and it is the best green room in the world. And he joins me right now, and he has good ice cream, great ice cream, as well as Clive Farrington, who’s been in that green room numerous times, from When in Rome.” — Clive Farrington (When in Rome UK) and Shant Keuilian (Archie's Ice...

“You know, I got married and had a kid and wanted to be a square and it's just, you know, the gods of rock decided one day to just give me a mustache and the incredible propensity for dancing. And, you know, here I am. Thank the gods. Thank the gods.” —Jesse Hughes (Eagles of Death Metal), Poorman's 15 Minutes of Fame interview

“And then, you know, a lot of the stuff that we grew up on at that time is a lot of the spandex, pretty hairdo type things, and we always thought you had to be someone special to put out a record or something. You know? So here punk rock started, so we'd do it ourselves. We'll make our own records, and that's exactly what we did. You know? And we built our own followings and everything. We even bl...

“I am a solo artist too, and I've made a couple of records and, you know, it released to crickets, but you know, it's like, if you could get some of your listeners and guide them towards my records, they're, of course, on streaming, you know. And my first record is called Song About Songs, and it's produced by a guy named Gus Seyffert and some great musicians on it. Gus played with, Roger Waters (...

“And then I'll just like, fast forward to next week. Next Friday, May 2nd, we have a new single coming out, and it's with me and Palmyra and Kathy Valentine on bass and Clem Burke on drums. Clem recorded it while he was sick. Underground Garage are going to, you know, be playing it and everything. We're on their record label, Wicked Cool Records. And so, you know, it meant everything in the world...

“[On the craziest stories covered] Some of the most fun ones, and the thing that always gets the responses is just talking about personalities that people loved growing up. You’re one of them, by the way. Anytime I mentioned you, I get tons of mail and I always get people saying, hey, you should be covering him on KOCI. It’s a little station down in Orange County.” — Richard Wagoner, Poorman's 15...

“But on the Johnny Carson show, we were completely live. We played our instruments, sang live, played live, did all the choreography. That’s one of the best TV shows we ever did, and Johnny Carson gave us a lot of kudos after our performance, and he really liked it. He was a cool guy.” —Phil “Fang” Volk, Poorman's 15 Minutes of Fame interview

“[About his father, guitarist Tommy Tedesco] I knew he played guitar for a living, but I had no idea that he, you know, played with all these amazing acts because I was too young. He was a member of the Wrecking Crew, which was basically a group of studio musicians in the sixties.” —Denny Tedesco, Poorman's 15 Minutes of Fame interview

“We just shot the video for it [new single, "Car Song"] this week, and the cool thing about that is we actually used the car, the Volvo, from Breaking Bad's final episode in the video, the one that, like, Walter White steals and goes back to seek his revenge on Jack and the gang. And I bought that from the assistant director. And, now my best friend who runs the studio that I record at owns it. An...

“I was amazed at the way he worked. First, there’s two things. I would watch his fingers when he was talking and his fingers would get all kinda spider like. It would play with the pots, which are the the volume controls on the board, and they were all over the board as he would talk. He would queue up records while talking. And the coolest thing that would just drive me nuts is he would wait so l...

“So I think just subliminally, it just kind of led me down that road. I loved music, I loved film, and I ended up going that direction, you know? 1980s, I was watching MTV, and I was like who is this guy Russell Mulcahy that’s directing these Duran Duran videos, Billy Joel’s “Pressure” and [Duran Duran’s] “Rio” and all this stuff. And I was just like obsessed with it. So I went into production, yo...

“Drivin' was pretty big, not a Top 10, but it was a Top 100 Billboards recording in 1979. And yes, so Drivin' was the biggest hit I've ever had and Pearl Harbor and the Explosions was the most successful I ever was. But success does not mean fun or happiness. You know? So I was more all about fun and happiness.” —Pearl Harbour, Poorman’s 15 Minutes of Fame interview

[On tribute bands] It's sort of a double-edged sword. You know? I think, it's it's kept it our music alive or helped revive it, but sometimes, you know, I feel like it's gotten to be so many tribute bands, you know, and it's gotten to be, like, almost over the top. —Joe Puerta, Poorman’s 15 Minutes of Fame interview

This is in my DNA. You know? It's something that makes me happy. And, even when I try, just be like, I'm not doing this no more, like, many years ago, And I wake up depressed, and I'll be like, I can't do that. I gotta keep doing it. You know? So you get sometimes a little frustrated, but if you really love it, you're gonna keep doing it. —Big Sono, Poorman’s 15 Minutes of Fame interview

“KROQ was one of our stations growing up for sure! So love alternative rock, grew up a Rock & Roll fan, right? Whether it was Led Zeppelin, Beatles, Stones, The Who, Hendrix, Cream - those were my bands kinda growing up. Love Rush, love all kinds of music, for sure. So KROQ was a station that I had on all the time.” — Patrick O'Neal, Poorman's 15 Minutes of Fame interview

“[About her Facebook page, followed by 630K] You know, I didn’t call it Vintage Hollywood for a reason. I called it Vintage Los Angeles. Because it’s about the people, everybody, and structures and architecture and restaurants and destinations, historic places.” — Alison Martino, Poorman's 15 Minutes of Fame interview

“[Favorite Blondie song] Actually, my personal favorite is our first single "X Offender" which is also an homage to the Phil Spector Wall of Sound, Wrecking Crew sound. I was trying to emulate the drums of Hal Blaine on that record. And also Richard Gottehrer producing was a product of the Brill Building and also very much influenced by that whole thing we're talking about- Spector, etcetera. So,...

“You know, I am not a person that is intimidated by people who have fame, money, or anything like that. And maybe it’d be different if I was President of the United States, but I have my doubts. I’m just kind of a regular guy, and I meet people, and I kinda take them at face value and make my judgments as I get to know them. So I put up everybody pretty much on equal footing and then you either go...

“[About former drummer, Clem Burke, who passed the day before this interview] No. He was our drummer. He was just the best drummer ever. I was saying before, I went to see Blondie because I liked Debbie Harry, but I left the concert in love with Clem Burke because he was just the greatest drummer I ever saw. I couldn’t believe it when he joined our band.” — John Easdale, Dramarama. Poorman's 15 Mi...

“ I think there’s a movie or a documentary in it- the phenomenon of our audience and then all of us singers and bands, you know, we’re still doing it and the people just keep coming and coming. You know, we do this Happy Together Tour every summer. This will be our 11th summer in a row where we do between 55 and 60 shows within 2.5 months, and the crowds are crazy. We thought the Happy Together To...

“We're launching a tour and a new single on April 25. The song is called "Get Dancing" and we're reaching out to all our fans to go on our YouTube and learn the choreography and be in the video with us. We're filming the week of April 14 in Los Angeles. So yeah. It's just I really want as many people as possible to learn the choreography and be in the video with me. And, I think it's gonna be real...

“You know, man, we cut a wide swath through this mockery known as the music business. We always tried to maintain a sense of humor. We wound up sticking around a lot longer than people thought we would, and we’ve made 16 records, you know. We got our own label and, you know, as the years went on, we’d add more and more crazy people to the mix that you wouldn’t expect. You know, Nick Oliveri came i...

“Well, my book, Violence Girl: From East LA Rage to Hollywood Stage, a Chicana Punk Story, it starts off with my childhood and it gets into how I got into music, got into punk rock. But then beyond that, it also it goes into, like, my whole family life and how my relationship with my father shaped my world view really, really shaped me because it turned me into a feminist. My father was abusive an...

“[About his Dad, Gary Usher, rock musician, songwriter, and record producer, working with The Byrds, The Beach Boys, Dick Dale, The Super Stocks, The Hondells in the 1960s] He's helping you find your vision, tweaking the sound. Another thing was, the music- the technology, was changing so much. You're talking four track, eight track, 16 track. My dad at Wally Heider, up in San Francisco, Sausalito...