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This was one of those stretches where every flyer got heavier. Sevendust, Coal Chamber, Sepultura, and Downset. That lineup alone says everything about where heavy music was headed in 2000. Downset had a following. Sevendust was already becoming one of those bands people stayed loyal to for life. Then came Static-X, Taproot, Deadlights, and Slaves on Dope. That was the sound of the era. Industrial...

October 22, 1994. Kansas at The Roxy. Ten dollars in advance. And according to Max, it was one of the best club shows he ever saw. Kansas was locked in that night. Tight, powerful, and the kind of live performance that gives you goosebumps while you’re standing there. Some shows are good. Some shows remind you why you started chasing music in the first place. That was one of them. Fast forward yea...

August 3, 2007. ZZ Top.  The Pretenders.  Stray Cats. That was one of those bills where every name on the flyer mattered. ZZ Top always delivers. The Pretenders are legends in their own right. But that night? Stray Cats stole the show. As many times as Max had seen ZZ Top, and even after seeing The Pretenders a few times, the Stray Cats came out and absolutely blistered the place. Brian Setzer and...

Before online presales, verified fan codes, and digital queues, you had to earn your concert tickets. Sometimes that meant camping outside in the snow. Max talks about waiting in line for Ozzy Osbourne tickets during the Randy Rhoads era with only a few people crazy enough to be out there. The police got called, Jim Dunn came out, and instead of just running them off, he realized they weren’t leav...

Max’s sister came to him with a job: two Taylor Swift tickets at AT&T Stadium. Not just any tickets either. They had to be good, because they were for the big boss. So Max called Ron. And Ron’s answer was exactly what you want to hear in that moment: “No problem. We’ll get it done. Don’t ask how. We’ll just get it done.” As the show got closer, Max had to drive down to Arlington, pay $60 just...

Powerman 5000, Static-X, and Dope at the Diamond Ballroom. 1,210 people. March 18, 2000. That was a hot bill for that moment. Powerman 5000 was moving. Static-X was on fire. Dope fit right in with that whole industrial, nu-metal, heavy radio wave that was taking over in 2000. At that point, 1,210 at the Diamond was probably a sellout or close to it. And then you fast forward 23 years. Powerman 500...

.The first time seeing Cheap Trick was when they opened for The Kinks, and even with The Kinks being legendary in their own right, Cheap Trick made a mark that never went away. Then the calendar keeps moving. September 27th — an alternative show at the Student Union Ballroom with The Judybats, Rob Rule, and Vibralux. That was the kind of bill that lived in the college-radio lane, where smaller roo...

Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, & Ray Price — Last of the Breed Tour August 17, 2007. The Zoo Amphitheatre. Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, and Ray Price on the Last of the Breed Tour. That wasn’t just a concert. That was country music history standing on one stage. Three legends. Three voices. Three completely different lanes of American music, all tied together by time, songs, and respect. It wa...

When you’ve seen The Rolling Stones as many times as Max has, picking one favorite show is almost impossible. Every one is different. Different stage. Different songs. Different city. Different people with you. Some shows hit because of the performance. Some hit because of the moment around it. But if you had to narrow it down? Paris or the desert. Paris was unforgettable. Eiffel Tower in the rain...

Some guests would be cool to have on the podcast. This one would mean something different. After years of stories, Jeff finally got to meet Max’s mom, and even with all the stories he’d heard, it still hit different. Then came Max Baker Sr. Stories started flowing, and the room knew right away there was history there. Max says having his dad on the podcast would be the biggest gift anyone could ev...

June 14, 2000. Disturbed was still in that early Sickness era, and the package came through twice. The Other Side in Tulsa.  The Diamond Ballroom in Oklahoma City. The lineup was stacked for that moment: Disturbed.  Deadlights.  Apartment 26.  Workhorse Movement.  Underside in Tulsa.  Element in Oklahoma City. Looking back, that bill should have been a monster. The Diamond show had 258 people. Not...

Max drove a wrecker. If he made a little money, he put it right back into the next show, the next ticket buy, the next opportunity. That was the cycle. It started young. At 14, he bought his own motorcycle and turned it into his motocross bike. He learned early how to work, how to build credit, and how to walk into a bank with a plan. If Fleetwood Mac was coming through on the Tusk tour, he’d go t...

After the original Rocklahoma in 1980 with Van Halen, Sammy Hagar, and The Doobie Brothers, the University of Oklahoma didn’t host another stadium concert until 1997. That’s a long gap. And according to the conversation, they left a lot of money on the table. Pink Floyd. The Rolling Stones’ Voodoo Lounge tour. Major stadium acts that could have brought huge crowds, big production, and serious reve...

Max quitting Red Bull was not a small thing. For years, it was part of the routine. Before recording, before work, before getting on the road, somebody was usually making a 7-Eleven or OnCue run for sugar-free Red Bulls. Then one day, the heart doctor asked what he drank, Max said Red Bull, and the answer came back simple: “No good for you. Cut it out.” So he did. No big announcement. No long spee...

September 27th at the Bricktown Event Center. Alice Cooper on the Brutal Planet tour. That was one of those shows where everybody made it through the day, even if not everybody loved being there. Jeff may not have been thrilled, but the night itself turned into a real one. Backstage was tight. One way in, one way out. Kitchen area. Side access. Everybody packed into the same working space, trying...

ZZ Top with Jackyl on the bill — the Antenna era. That mid-90s stretch when ZZ Top was still rolling hard, still evolving the sound, and still drawing real crowds. But the part that sticks isn’t just the show. It’s the meet. A signed Antenna lithograph from the record company. Meet-and-greet passes. Winning the kind of poster you keep for life. “Cry Love” opening the Tulsa date, and then meeting t...

 It doesn’t matter where Max is in life — hospital bed, lowest low, highest high — the Stones have carried him through it. That’s not a slogan. That’s survival. And by 2024, the story has stretched far beyond Oklahoma: seeing them in Paris, seeing them in the desert alongside names like Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Neil Young, The Who, and Roger Waters. Then comes the backstage moment you can’t scri...

It starts with a simple problem. “There’s a band coming this summer that I have no connections for.” And everybody immediately knows who we’re talking about. “Do they roll along stoned?” Yeah. They do. That’s how show business works. The biggest moments don’t show up on a calendar first — they show up in random conversations where you realize your ass is on the line again. And somehow, it turns in...

You had two sides of the room that did not mix. Skinheads on one side. SHARPs on the other. Real tension. Real politics. The kind of night where you’re not just running a show—you’re playing judge, jury, and peacekeeper just to keep it from turning into a riot. At points it looked like Moses parting the sea. The floor literally split down the middle like an early wall of death, except it wasn’t a...

June 11, 2000. Motörhead. Nashville Pussy. Supersuckers. A lineup that should’ve been a stampede. And only 372 people showed up. That number still hurts. Less than 400 bodies for a bill that loud, legendary, and unapologetic. Tickets were around $20–$22 and it still didn’t move like it should have. But the people who were there remember it. Lemmy. Up close. Real as it gets. One of the most vivid m...

Some bands aren’t just bands. They’re the reason you end up in the music business. ZZ Top is that band. Over the years, we did a lot of business with their world. You meet crew guys. You watch the touring machine evolve. You see faces change. But some things stay consistent—there aren’t many people cooler than Billy Gibbons. And it still hits different seeing him in Ardmore, Oklahoma, sitting at 2...

Max says it plain. If you stay in the problem, you never find the solution. That lesson came from the woman sitting to his left, his sister Deana. When they first started spending more time together again, she saw him at his worst. Leg straightened out. Pain loud. Mood even louder. And she didn’t baby him. She held it up and hit him with the truth. “What are you gonna do now, big boy?” Even joked...

July 30, 2000. Brady Village in Tulsa. 2,571 people . Deftones and Glassjaw on the same bill. And the crazy part? You lived in Tulsa at the time. Glassjaw is one of those bands people don’t “kinda like.” You’re either all the way in or you don’t get it. Daryl Palumbo is that dude, and seeing Glassjaw in that era, in that room, with that crowd size, is the kind of night you talk about for the rest...

Ticket drops used to feel like the land run. People camped. Lines formed overnight. Rules said you had to be in line, but they didn’t always say it had to be you standing there every minute. So you’d see people try creative workarounds, helping others out while trying to hold a spot and stay in the game. Then the real circus started. When it came time to move the line, it turned into a sprint acro...

The day Max was released from the hospital with a new knee.  Rehab starting. Exercises underway. And even with the fresh pain of surgery, Max says it still doesn’t compare to what he was living with before. That’s the part people don’t understand until it’s them. Chronic pain doesn’t just hurt, it starts messing with your mind. It gets to the point where getting in a chair, getting in the truck, d...