Apr 30, 2020
Rick and I became friends someyears back through a mutual acquaintance and our friendship hasgrown more and more over the years. We have a deep respect for eachother, our drive and our accomplishments.
We share a kinship in that we’reboth drummers and love to watch each other perform and share ourexperiences on and off the stage.
Rick takes us all the way back tohis early childhood where we learn how his path and his outlook onlife, was created at a young age both musically andpersonally.
You will hear him say throughoutthis interview, the words “No Fear!” and you’ll see why he hasaccomplished so much in his life up to date and why he continues topush himself and grow even more.
**********
Rick Lewis:
Radio Personality
Color Commentator for the DenverBroncos
Drummer for The Rick Lewis Project
*iHeartRadio Shows*
https://thefox.iheart.com/featured/the-rick-lewis-show/
https://koanewsradio.iheart.com/featured/logan-lewis/
Rick's Links:
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/1ricklewis
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ricklewisproject/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/1RickLewis
https://youtu.be/oDbwc0ss72A
**********
Podcast Music By: Andy Galore, Album: "Out andAbout",Song: "Chicken & Scotch" 2014
Andy's Links:
**********
Subscribe, Rate & Review:
I would love if you could subscribe to the podcast and leave anhonest rating & review. This will encourage other people to listenand allow us to grow as a community. The bigger we get as acommunity, the bigger the impact we can have on the world.
For show notes and past guests, please visit If you enjoy thepodcast, would you please considerleaving ashortreviewon Apple Podcasts/iTunes?It takes lessthan 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping toconvince hard-to-get guests.
For show notes and past guests, please visit: https://joecostelloglobal.com/#thejoecostelloshow
Sign up for Joe’s email newsletter at: https://joecostelloglobal.com/#signup
For transcripts of episodes, go to https://joecostelloglobal.com/#thejoecostelloshow
Follow Joe:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jcostelloglobal
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jcostelloglobal/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jcostelloglobal/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUZsrJsf8-1dS6ddAa9Sr1Q?view_as=subscriber
Transcript
Rick Lewis Interview:
Rick Lewis Interview
Joe: Hey, Rick Lewis, man. How you doing? Gladyou
Rick: Well,
Joe: Could join me.
Rick: Good to see you, too, Joe. As you cantell, as we were setting this up, I'm a borderline moron when itcomes to this type of technology, so I'm trying my best.
Joe: Hey, that's what happens when you're a bigshot and they have everybody around you taking care of thetechnology. You just sit back and put the
Rick: Yeah I need an I.T. guy at my house
Joe: Headphones on and start talking
Joe: [laughter] All right, cool. So I justwanted to start from the beginning. We're gonna just do a quickoverview of where you started out and so let's just dig into it,man. Everyone's going to know by the time we start talking, atleast your bio and everything else. But, you know, I want to startfrom the very beginning and get a quick synopsis of where you grewup, where you were born, where you grew up. Start from there.
Rick: Yeah. So I was. I was born outside ofDetroit, Michigan, in a steel town, blue collar steel town. Greatplace to grow up. Just, you know, really, really good childhood. Alot of great memories. My dad worked for a chemical company thereand we lived there from the time I was born till 6th grade. Andthen my dad started moving around the country because he was kindof moving up, up the ladder in his company. My dad was the firstguy in our family to ever get a college degree. And so he kind ofbroke the mold of, you know, generations of the family. And Ireally admire him for doing that because he had five kids. He wasgoing to night school to get a degree. I don't know how he didthat, but he did it. And once he got his degree, he started kind ofmoving up in the corporate world a bit. So middle of 6th grade, Imoved from Detroit to Columbus, Ohio, middle of 9th grade, I movedfrom Columbus, Ohio, to Naperville, Illinois, which is rightoutside Chicago. And then just before my senior year, we moved toCincinnati, Ohio. So we moved around quite a bit. I went to I thinkit was four different high schools, in two different states. And Ithink that...you know, what the time was was a little bittraumatizing because you're always the new kid. But looking back onit now, I realize that it it there were some good things about itthat kind of molded me into who I am today.
Joe: Right and from what I know, you and I arefriends and I know you a fair amount, but I have a feeling that youare really good athlete, right?
Rick: I was a really good athlete. Yeah. Youknow, growing up, I always thought I wanted to be a pro athlete.And that was my dream and that was my dream until I got intocollege, and then once you get into college with with bettercompetition, you know that that dream was quickly shattered and Irealized that that wasn't going to come to fruition. But so thatwas about until I was about 19 years old, until I realized that,yeah, I'm a good athlete, but there's a lot better athletes than meout there and it just wasn't in the cards for me. But yeah, growingup, we played every sport in Detroit. You know, every sportthroughout the season, hockey, baseball, basketball, football andvery, very competitive. We played we played a lot of sandlot gamesback there that were very competitive with some really good playersand it was it was really cool to be in that type of competitionwhere you have a real sense of pride for your street or yourneighborhood and you're playing against all these otherneighborhoods. And it got, it got to the point where there'd befights. You know, there'd be a lot of, a lot of people that heldgrudges, you know, and that type of thing and ah like I said, itwas kind of a tough part of of the country with all like bluecollar, you know, people's kids that were really grinder's and justreally gave everything they did...100% percent effort.
Joe: Right!
Rick: And I was one of those guys.
Joe: I know, I know from your mentality thatyou weren't going to take any sh*t from anybody, so, so so how didyou get to NAU in Flagstaff?
Rick: Ok.
Joe: How'd you pick that school out of outof
Rick: Yeah,
Joe: Everything? You know
Rick: Well, like I said, we moved around a lot,so I was a good football player. And the fact that we moved rightbefore my senior year was not good for somebody that was hoping tomove on and play college football and get recruited and get it to agood football program because, you know, it's hard to followsomebody, especially back then, not today with social media. Youknow, it's a lot easier to get your profile out there to, you know,college recruiters and coaches. But back then, it wasn't. So thefact that I moved right before my senior year was a bit of ahandicap for me. But I had a good senior year and I was gettingrecruited throughout the state of Ohio and Indiana and Kentucky andplaces like that. That I wasn't really that interested in going to,you know, a lot of smaller schools, a few mid-level schools. I didget letters from some other schools around the country, too, thatwere bigger. But I didn't have the confidence at that point to oneup, you know, leave, leave or leave home and go halfway across thecountry to try to play at a at a bigger school. But anyway, NAU oneof the schools that that did recruit me back then, I never evenheard it in a year in Ohio. I mean, I had never heard of that. Iheard the name before. So I ended up going to actually went toMiami University, Miami of Ohio, which was about an hour, maybe anhour and a half from my house. And the reason I did that is becauseat a high school girlfriend that I thought for me it was moreimportant that I stay close to home so I could be around this highschool girlfriend and Miami of Ohio had a really good football teamat the time.
Rick: They didn't recruit me. So I just wentthere so I could be closer to my girlfriend. Three weeks since youbroke up with me and, you know, the typical freshman story. And soI couldn't wait to get out of that school. I mean, I just kind of Iwaited one quarter and I quit and I came back home and try tofigure out what I was going to do next. And it was at that pointthat I really I think is when I would say I became a man at thatpoint, because I had a I had a bit of, I guess you'd call it anawakening or epiphany back then as I was going through all of thispain, you know, this is high school heartbreak. And I realized thatah, that I had, I was I was blessed with a lot of things. I was Iwas born at the right time, you know, born in the United States.You know, I was athletic. I had had some intelligence. I had somemusical ability. And I realized that I had all of these skills thatwere already given to me and that it was my job at that point totake all of these gifts and then try to make them better, you know,try to enhance myself in every way and become a better person allaround. And so once I had that epiphany, I decided that it was timeto launch. And I remember that NAU had recruited me and I like Isaid, I'd never even heard of you before but Arizona seemed like areally exotic place to be, especially for a kid from Ohio. And so Idecided that's where I was going to go.
Joe: And what did you. Yeah. So what did you gothere to do? Cause it it wasn't getting go there for football,right.
Rick: Yeah,
Joe: What was your major.
Rick: I did.
Joe: Oh you did.
Rick: Oh, definitely. Yeah.
Joe: Oh, cool.
Rick: And I had no major in mind at that point.I was I was on a different kind of mission. I wasn't going there tolearn or be educated out of a book. I was going there to experiencelife. And so the school part of it wasn't all that important to me.I had something else in mind and that was just, you know, findingout who I was, what I was fully capable of doing, challengingmyself and at that point, I would say I had no fear. I had no fearof failure. I had, I didn't even have a second thought thatwhatever I did wasn't going to work, that I would find a way tomake it work. And I would find a way to be successful and Ijust...I could have I could have done anything at that point. Iliterally could have done anything. But I didn't know what it wasyet. But I had a feeling whatever I did, it was going to be great!It which change this belief, just this faith that I had. So I wentout there, you know, the football was a part of the package, but itwas really just to find myself in the football part of it ended upbecoming becoming a very minor part of the experience out there,because I learned so much about myself and what I was capable ofdoing. And I had several majors when I was there. I just you know,I could never find anything that really interested me enough inschool until one day at the gym, a guy told me that he had a showon the campus radio station and he said, you should come downtonight to them on my radio show. I'd never even thought of it. AndI said, "OK, that sounds cool, I'll do that". So I went in therethat night and I really liked it. He put me on the air. I ended upgetting my own show. I'd found my thing, basically. So when I wentout there for with complete confidence that I would find but notknowing what it was at the time, I did find it. It's...
Joe: How far was that into into that collegeyear or like was it the first year, second year?
Rick: I want to say it was year two. And I wasonly there for two and a half years, so I would say probably rightafter my first year I discovered that. And then I switched my majorto radio TV. Like I said, I got my own show on the campus station.I, I knew I was...I knew I was good at it right away. You know, Ijust found my thing just like you when you found that you couldplay drumms, right? You knew
Joe: Yeah.
Rick: What your thing is. So I knew what mything was. And so I also got I was doing ah...I was like a clubdeejay. They had nightclubs and stuff like that, you know likedisco kind of thing. I became a disco deejay and that was reallyfun, I really enjoyed that. And just once again, just developing mycraft, basically learning how to talk in front of people, learninghow to put on a show, learning how to present. And that just wasjust giving me more and more experience for my radio TV career thatfollow. So after, after a year or so of doing that, you know, a lotof people were telling me, you know, a lot of people in Flagstaffwere telling me right now my, my group of people [laughter]
Joe: Right.
Rick: Would be, you know, they were saying, youknow, "Rick, you're really good at this man. You should go toHollywood. You should you should try to get into movies inHollywood". And I was thinking, yeah, you know what? I shouldprobably try that. And so once again, going back to the no fearthing, that's what I did, I ended up quitting NAU after two and ahalf years. This was this because after like right after the fallsemester. So going in to the spring, some guy that was driving toCalifornia for a job and I didn't have a car, I didn't have anymoney, I literally five bucks, that's all I had. So I had no car, Ihad five dollars to my name, everything I owned a pillowcase. Idid, I didn't have any, anywhere to go up there, I had no place tostay...nothing. Well, there's this guy that I was driving out with,had a van, so I thought, well, you know, if I get desperate, Icould maybe sleep in this guy's van. So I went out there and Iquickly got hired at a club about there in Orange County as adeejay. And not only did I get a job, they gave me room and boardat a at this nice hotel because the club was at a hotel. So I got ajob, room and board at the hotel, I got a company car, all my, allmy meals paid for and all my laundry and dry cleaned.
Joe: Geez.
Rick: So it was like I hit the lotto, you know?And I remember I called my dad up when I got out there because hewas really mad at quit school. And I called my dad up when I gotout there and he ah...he goes, "So what are you really doing outthere, son?" He goes "Are you in the Mafia or something?" He goes,"He said, no...nobody gives a 21 year old kid a company car". Isaid, yeah, I know, Dad, but they did and so I had that, you know,so that gave me some stability and some income. And I went out andgot an agent and this agent sent me out on my first, like veryfirst audition was a movie called "Fast Break", which was abasketball movie, Gabe Kaplan was the star of it. And um, Itried out for it was a very minor role in the movie. Basically justhad to play basketball. So once again, going back to the athleticability that I had. Right. So that was my tryout and they went, OK,good, you got the part. So I ended up I work six weeks on this filmevery day for six weeks, and it didn't pay that much.
Rick: I still remember when paid it paidseventy five bucks a day. And at that point, I'd had a motorcycle.Um, I rode the motorcycle to the set every day in L.A. for sixweeks...it never rained one time. Lucky because at that point Ididn't have the car anymore because when I got this job, I had toquit the the deejay job. And so that I had to get a motorcycle,somebody loaned me money to get the motorcycle. Some guy just said,you know, "Let me buy that for you". So once again, it's just likeit's like everything was just meant to be for me. And so that kindof got me started down the path of trying to be an actor. The moviewas a was a big hit for those of you watching this now, you couldstill find that movie. It pops up like on, on TBS, like once a yearthey play it. At the time, it was one of the biggest movies of theyear that came out because Gabe Kaplan was a big star back. He wascoming from Welcome Back Kotter to that. And so.
Joe: I'll have to rent it now so that I can andI have to figure out if I can find you somewhere in the film beforewe get past this point, though, I want to ask you, what gave youthe foresight to to actually go and get an agent? How did that cometo your brain to go, wow. I need to go get an agent.
Rick: Why just knew I just knew if you're goingto be if you want to try to get some TV or movies, you needed anagent. And so this guy this guy got me in quite a few things,mostly, mostly extra roles but I did pick up ah, I got a couple ofnational TV commercials, I got a Budweiser commercial, I got aMarantz stereo commercial. I was an ABC sitcom called "Makin' It"with David Naughton. You know, just a minor role...I beat him up inthe show. I was like a tough guy and, and they and they you up,they didn't think I looked tough enough and I had, I had blondhair, kind of surfer guy look and so they sprayed my hair blackwith, with a
Joe: Oh Gosh...
Rick: spray paint out of the can. They sprayedmy hair black to make, it look like me. So I was kind ofdisappointed in that because if you watched it and knew me, youwouldn't even know it was me.
Joe: Oh Wow!
Rick: But a lot, a lot, a lot of coolexperiences along the way.
Joe: That's really cool, and it's funny becauseyou started out doing the radio thing, which is not in front of acamera to being fully in front of a camera and then come where weare today, now you're well, actually you do both now. So it's kindof cool. You got the experience, so you're comfortable in bothsituations.
Rick: Yeah. And the way I got decided to goback into get into radio is, this is, this is really was a turningpoint in my life. I was working at a liquor store, like all actorsdo. You're either a wait, you know, a waiter or you work at aliquor store or something like that. Something that gave you thefreedom to be able to go out in an audition and do whatever youneeded to do. So as working at a liquor store in Anaheim, rightdown the street from Disneyland. And it was a Friday night and thatnight a show that I was on was on TV. So I brought a TV in to theliquor store because I wanted to...you know, I obviously wanted towatch myself on TV. And in effect, it was that show "Makin' It"that I just mentioned, the ABC sitcom. And so I brought to TV inand I had it on the counter and it was a Friday night on HarborBoulevard in Anaheim, right down the street from Disney. And acouple of guys came in and, you know, put a 12 pack on on thecounter and and I'm busy looking at the TV over here and I turnedaround I said, "You want anything else?" They went "Yeah, I thinkwe'll go get another 12 pack. I said, "Yeah, that's great!" And soI go back, I'm looking at the TV, one guy comes around behind meand the guy in front of me puts a gun to my head. So they'reobviously holding me up. Yeah,
Joe: Yeah, man...
Rick: It's so.
Rick: You know, it's you don't know how you'regoing to react in a situation like that, until that happens andeverything for me just slowed way down almost like slow motion. AndI didn't panic, I was, I was really calm. I gave him the money outof the um, the cash register, but I knew that they had some markedbills in there. If you pulled these marked bills, that triggers asilent alarm and the Anaheim PD comes because if you're gettingrobbed, that's what you did. I didn't, I didn't, I didn't want togive him those bills because I knew that the alarm would wouldtrigger the police to come and I thought if the police came, theseguys would either hold me hostage or kill me. So you could see howhow clear I was thinking. So I didn't give the bills and they said,you know, "Give us all the bills you M'efer". And so I pull themout, I threw them in the bag. Now, I knew that the cops had beenalerted. So they're trying to get me to open the safe. I couldn'topen that, I said, "Hey, man, I just work here, I don't have thecombination". And they said, "Open the safe!!". and I said, "Ican't man, I just work here". So they said, "Get in the back room,hands over your heads!!" I'm walking back like this. And that'swhen I thought, well, I might be in trouble now and then it's thesame time, I'm still thinking, man, I hope nobody comes in thatfront door because they'll probably kill me.
Rick: Even the cops were there, if the copscome they'll hold me hostage, if somebody else walks in, they'llprobably kill me. This is a Friday night and then nobody comes in.So then they told me to lay on the floor, hands over my head, youknow, like execution style...I'm doing that. And they're stilltrying, they find a crowbar. They're trying to open the safe, andso they, they couldn't get it open and they finally realizedthey're going to get out of there. And they told me to count to 100before I got up. They had to step right over me to get out. And I'mthinking they're either going to kick me in the head, shoot me inthe back of the head, you know, who knows what they're doing? Well,they didn't you know, they stepped over me and ran out the door. Icounted to three and I ran up the door because I wanted to see if Icould catch a license plate. But they were on foot. So they gotaway. It is up standing in the parking lot, five cop cars pulled upand at first they thought that I robbed a liquor store. And Iquickly explained to them what had happened. And so, anyway, longstory short, they never caught the guys but the next day I gotcalled into the corporate office. It was a U-Tote'Em, I know if youremember you U-Tote'Em
Joe: Ok...
Rick: Became they became Circle K's
Joe: Ok.
Rick: Yeah, so a corporate liquor store.
Joe: Mm...hmmmm
Rick: And I got called in to the corporateoffice and the guy sat me down and he goes, "Well, you got robbedlast night!", I said, "Yeah, yeah!". He goes, "Well, you know what?They got a lot of money!!" I was like? "Yeah!?", he goes "No, theygot like $227 dollars. I said "Ah ha!" and he goes, he goes,"That's a lot of money!" And and I said it, and I was, I wasprobably twenty three years old, twenty two, you know, still just akid and this guy's got his suit on and everything. And I said, Isaid, "Have you ever had a gun pointed at your head!?" And he said,"No, I haven't". And I said, "Listen, man"...I said, "I would'vecarried the safe to my f*ckin' car!!". If I...that's a quote, youknow, quote unquote. I told them that, he goes, "Oh, no, no, Iunderstand,you know, I totally get that", but he goes, "We're goingto have to let you go!". I,
Joe: Oh,
Rick: I got fired...
Joe: Gosh...
Rick: for being held up, and so I said, I said,"Why would I give up my life for a minimum wage job?" I said "Iwould get I wouldn't give them anything they wanted". He goes, "Noand I get that we can have you work here anymore". I don't know, Istill don't know what that was about. But I ended up realizing thatI should probably get into radio. You know, that's really what Iwas born to do. Now, the acting thing wasn't my thing and so Iended up going back to school at Long Beach State because they hada really good radio program there. And I had a year and a half togo to get my degree and I got a degree at Long Beach State. Theyhad two broadcast stations on campus, broadcasting into Long Beach.It was great experience...I did everything from a deejay shift to asports talk show, to a news, I was a news anchor and I did play byplay for the Long Beach State football, baseball, basketball team.And so I got a ton a great experience. Yeah, it turned out to bereally, really good.
Joe: That's amazing because I got on the radioat my college and I got the sh*tty 4 a.m. to 7 a.m. slot orsomething like that, because like it was only drunks calling in andtelling me to play this and that and I'd get in trouble with it. Iwouldn't stick to the playlist that the program director gave me,so. Yeah. So yeah, that's
Rick: Oh,
Joe: Good.
Rick: I didn't know you do that.
Joe: Oh yeah. It was it was a disaster.
Rick: Yeah, I got to do everything, but keep inmind now I'm a little older, so I'm probably twenty three, whereeverybody else there is 18 and 19. So I was more experienced, I'vebeen around. And so I really don't want to say I was the best guythere, but I probably was, you know. And so they want it, so theyutilize me any way they could. And it just turned out to be greatin fact I'm not bragging, but I got nominated as outstandinggraduate the program. And this is
Joe: Oh cool!
Rick: it and me, a guy who never cared aboutschool. I mean, I could care less about what I could learn atschool or at least a classroom part of it but once I got intoradio, it was just my thing. I got straight A's, I got a 4.0. mylast year and a half with, without really even trying. And whenthat happens, you know, you found, your thing, you found.
Joe: Yeah.
Rick: You're supposed to be doing, you know,just
Joe: Yeah.
Rick: Like I mentioned earlier with you playingdrums. Same thing.
Joe: So now, now you're, you found it! Youfound what you love, you got your degree, you excelled in it. Howyou know, if we can just cover quickly the, the the brief stop offsat the different stations around the country that you, you got workat and then finally landing in Colorado.
Rick: So, yeah, I graduated in June. I sent outtapes for, I sent out tapes for, you know, to be a deejay and Ialso sent out sports tapes to do sports talk or be a sportsreporter because I like both. And and I didn't, you know, I thoughtI'd end up in sports, honestly, like to be a sportscaster but Ididn't want to limit myself, so I set up both and I got hired inAugust. Two months later, I got hired at a radio station in SanClemente. So in the market still right on the beach, it was it waspretty cool. The money wasn't very good. I still remember what Iwas making back then, it was twelve hundred a month to do morningsat this station in San Clemente, but I wasn't in it for the money.I had, I knew, I knew what the goal was, I knew that the moneywould come at some point. This was just all about getting gettingyou getting reps, as they say in football, you know, building up mychops. I knew I had to build up my chops. I didn't come out ofcollege, you know, a good broadcaster. I came out of college a youknow, a green professional broadcaster with a lot of potential. SoI totally saw the big picture and I knew I just had to get reps inand every day, you get better and better and better. Just likeplaying an instrument, you just got play. And, you know, anybodycan crack open a mike and talk on the radio but it's the years ofexperience that really, you know, fine tunes, what you can do, justlike playing drums or playing any other instrument. So, so SanClemente, I was there for a year and a half and I started gettingnoticed by some of the bigger markets like San Diego, they had meworking weekends and say Diego at a radio station down there. Infact, they offered me the morning show down there and that's awhole another story, I kind of blew that one. Well, I don't knowhow much time we have. But
Joe: It's
Rick: Yeah.
Joe: Up to you. Listen, I. I will stay here aslong as, I have a lot I want to cover.
Rick: Yeah. Yeah.
Joe: But if
Rick: Well,
Joe: If this is
Rick: Ok.
Joe: A great but if this is a great story,because the story with the five dollars and the pillow
Rick: Yeah.
Joe: Case,
Rick: Yeah well anyway...
Joe: I had never I had never heard. So that wasa great story.
Rick: Yeah. Well, anyway, it was a, I learned alesson talking to fans that would call the show, you know, a lot oftimes when records are playing, you'll kill time talking to peopleon the phone. And I happened to mention it to somebody, whohappened to call down the morning show guy at the station in SanDiego and tell them, "Oh, by the way, I heard this guy in SanClemente, Rick Lewis, is taking your job!" This guy's "What!!?" Hewent to the boss, told the boss, the boss called me. "Who? Who didyou tell, you had the morning show here at the radio station!!?"And said, He said, "I can't hire you!" He said, "I had to deny it,I'm not going to be able to hire you". Anyway, that's the shortversion of the story, but still from there, from San Clemente, Iended up getting hired at a radio station in Anaheim. After about ayear and a half in it, it was quite a big step up. It was a unionstation. The money was really good. I had probably more thantripled or quadrupled what I was making, you know, so I was therefor just a week and they changed the format. I got fired a weekinto the week into this job and it was, you know, like I said, itwas.
Rick: It was a pretty good step up. And like Iwas thinking, how did they not know that they were gonna change theformat a week ago when they hired me? It was pretty devastated. Andso once again, I'm starting over I ended up sending tapes out. Thistime I'm certainly tapes out of the L.A. Three months later, I gothired at the biggest rock station in L.A. and probably the biggestrock station in the country. Some of you may remember KMET TheMighty Met, those of you from from L.A. certainly remember KMET.So, so one door closes, another one opens. I ended up like justjump, jumpin' over the mid-market, you know, radio station, rightup to the very top. So in a year and a half out of college, I'mworking at the top radio, top rock radio station in the country. Itwas named Billboard Magazine's Major Market AOR Radio Station. Andso this was like a dream. It's unbelievable! I was the youngest guythere, they had legendary radio personalities there and just just ablessing for me. You know, I'm not the most patient guy anyway.Yeah, I don't think I was ready for it, to be honest, I still had alot of a lot of growing to do as a radio personality, but that'scertainly accelerated it.
Rick: And then once again, the pay was two orthree times more than what it was gonna be an Anaheim so in a yearand a half, I just like I shot right to the top of my field. And,you know, you're probably thinking, well, you didn't pay your dues,you know. I guess maybe you could look at it that way, like Ididn't have to go to a lot of sh*tty markets and you know, grind itout for 10 years before I got the opportunity but that's just howit happened for me. But I never took it for granted. I never tookit for granted because going back to my blue collar roots, I wouldcall myself a grinder with talent. The talent a blessing, the grindpart, that's on me. I had nothing to do with the talent. But thegrind part's on me, and I always thought that a grinder withtalent, is the, the person you would want to hire because thatperson is going to take what they got and they're going to outworkeverybody and they're just going to get better and better andbetter. And so that's kind of how it happened with me. So there Iwas LA, now you want to know how I got to Denver. OK. So.
Joe: Yeah. Now, I wanted to how cause, likecause, that's where we're going to get into more of this otherstuff. So...
Rick: Yeah, so I worked in LA for...see, Istarted in 81' at San Clemente and I worked in LA till 1990 so nineyears. I also worked at Power 106 in LA, which is still a bigpowerhouse radio station in L.A. because I ended up getting firedfrom KMET twice, um yeah, two times. Yeah, one time I just signed athree year deal and this fired me three months later. They pulledthe plug on the whole radio station, this was in 1987. They, theybecame the first smooth jazz radio station in the country. Theyjust pulled the plug on one of the greatest, if not the greatestrock radio station ever! Turn it into smooth jazz, fired us all. Sothat's the third time I've been fired now since 1981. So I wentto...I realized then that I, to make the really big money and thebiggest impact in the business, you got to do morning drive radio.So I stepped back down to that radio station Anaheim, that I wasthat early on in my career and started doing mornings there and Idid mornings there for three three years and I got fired...again.So for no reason, you get fired in radio, not for doing anythingwrong, it's usually a turnover of, you know, upper management,middle management, format changes, that kind of thing. So, so nowI've been fired four times, since I started in 1981 and it's reallyhard to get a job in radio. Every time you get fired, you think I'mprobably never going to get hired again.
Rick: You know, because it's it's it's reallyhard to do. And I had, I had so many chances along the way there inLA where I almost hit like the big time. Like I got asked to guesthost PM Magazine and I crushed it! And I killed it!. They call melater, they said "Hey, we want to, we're thinking about making youthe national PM Magazine host" and I was probably, I was probablyabout twenty six years old, twenty seven, and they were like "I waslike, cool!" So they said, we got to, get we got to get a reel,gotta to get something more than this to show people nationally,come on down, we'll do some test and test rule. And that day I gotstuck in traffic driving from Orange County to Hollywood, took metwo and a half hours. I didn't know then, that I'm hypoglycemic, somy blood sugar just tanked on the way down there. So I got there, Idid the audition and I was flat, totally flat. And I knew it wasnot a good audition. And the guy pulled me aside, he goes, "Rick,what happened man, you crushed it when you guest hosted the show,the just wasn't very good!" "Yeah man,I know", I said "I'm just notfeel "in it today. He goes, "I can't show anybody this!". "Well,can we try it again?" He goes, "No". So anyway, I blew that one.Dick Clark called the radio station in LA that I was working at,some, somehow he had seen me somewhere and he said, "Hey, I want tomeet this guy, Rick Lewis, one of your radio people".
Rick: They gave me the message, I call back,they set up a meeting with me. I go to Dick Clark's Studios inBurbank and I never met Dick, but I met his right hand man. We hadabout a 90 minute meeting. And he told me that they were going todevelop a bunch of shows around me. And so of course, at this pointI realized not to get your hopes up in Hollywood or in showbusiness because a lot of times it just never happens. So I wasfeeling good about it, but I didn't get my hopes up at that pointand I'm maybe twenty seven years old, twenty eight, I already knewbetter than to get my hopes up. So we had some conversations on thephone after that about different shows and different show ideas forabout three, four months and then they went dark on me. Nothing,nothing ever happened again, I never heard from him again. Soanyway, I had all these near misses or near hits along the way. Andso at 1990, a radio guy in L.A. named Frazer Smith, and once again,anybody from LA would know that name, he was, he's one of thelegendary guys out there. He was from Detroit and he told me, hesaid "Hey man!", he goes "I just got offered a half a milliondollars to do mornings in Detroit" and this was in the 80s, sotranslate that into today's money. That's a lot of money!
Joe: Right.
Rick: He said big money
Joe: That's a lot of money.
Rick: You can make big money in some of theseMidwest towns doing mornings. I went "Really!!? OK, it's good toknow". So I contacted a guy that I knew in our company that I stillwork for and they offered me an afternoon show back in Cincinnati,which is where I used to live. I thought that was too big of a stepdown in market size, I turned it down. A show, a station inDetroit, told me that they were very interested in hiring me to doa show there and so I went back and interviewed. I took my lifeback, we were looking at houses and neighborhoods, never happened!And anybody that's in show business, you know, Joe, you'vebeen you've been in the entertainment business a long time, youknow that this is just how it goes. All of these big things getdangled in that most of time they don't happen. But, I knew at thatpoint that I'm ready to leave the market if the right opportunitycame along. So the guy who offered me the job at Cincinnati gotback to me and he named off about three or four other markets thatthey were willing to hire in and Denver was one them. And I'd neverreally been to Denver before. And he said, hey, we got thiscomedian named Floorwax, he's really funny, but he doesn't get theradio business, he doesn't understand it. He needs a really goodpartner to make it work. He'd already, he'd already had a show herein Denver. He was on the air with another guy and he said thestation is losing money.
Rick: They're they're not right even in the top20, but he said, if you can go there, turn it around, he said youcan write your own ticket. And I kept thinking back to what FrazerSmith told me about how this could all work out financially. So mywife and I flew out and we liked the city. I thought it was worthtaking a chance for a year. Once again, back to no fear. I left theL.A. market and I by the way, I did get after getting fired there,I did have another radio show, another radio station I was workingfor back there, so it wasn't like I was unemployed, but I, I toldmy wife, I said, even if this only last year with Floorwax, we'llgo somewhere else, meaning me and Floorwax will keep goingsomewhere till it hits. Because I knew I knew that what we had, wasreally special. And it ended up here we are 30 years later, I'mstill doing the same radio show..it's unbelievable. And it's beenjust an incredible run and I'd never take it for granted because ofhow I started my career, getting fired four times in the first nineyears. I wake up every day just counting my blessings. And I alsorealize it didn't matter how good you are, how big you are, howmuch money you make, they could fire you in a second and I've nevertaken that for granted.
Joe: I know that about you, I know that you'regrateful every day for what you have and what you've accomplishedand that's why this is a special interview for me, because we wethink along the same lines and in, you know, that's what they say,right? You said you are, what is it? The quote is something like,"You are the sum of the five people that you associate yourselfwith" or hang around whether or whatever. So,
Rick: Yeah,
Joe: Yeah, I get
Rick: We all
Joe: Yeah
Rick: Attract,
Joe: Yeah.
Rick: You know, the energy we put out. We namedEnergy. And so
Joe: Yeah.
Rick: That's how you and I became friends. Youknow, you
Joe: Yeah.
Rick: Kind of attract who you are or what youwhat you put out there. Yeah.
Joe: Yup. So you get to Denver and they get ridof this other guy that Floorwax is with and you step in and youguys create this this Lewis and Floorwax show that was on the airfor how many years?
Rick: Well, Floorwax and I did twenty threeyears together. And then
Joe: Ok.
Rick: Unfortunately for floor wax, he ended upquitting the show and he's been gone ever since. So he's been gonefor seven years now. And the show continues to go on. The show isstill very successful. You know, big revenue maker, big ratings.It's amazing. I can't believe it's lasted this long. I reallycan't.
Joe: Yup, yeah, and there must have been a lotof pressure, right, when that whole thing happened where Floorwaxwas going away, you were still handed the show to say, let's keepit going and make the best of it. And I'm sure at that pointeverybody's eyes were on you going, ok, can he pull this offwithout having the secondary person with him on the air to exchangethat banter with and all that other stuff? And I know listening toit after that, that it just it just kept shooting upward. It justwas amazing!
Rick: Yeah, I kind of thought
Joe: And still is so...
Rick: Maybe it was over here in Denver when hehad left. In fact, I hired an agent outside. You know, the more Ihad a New York agent, you know, a national agent thinking that Iwould probably be looking for another job. And I looked at it onceagain as an opportunity. You know, like, all right, this is theuniverse telling me, hey, it's time to move on. Floorwax left inJanuary and by that summer, the radio show was number one in themorning. And so then they the company was coming back to me talkingabout a new contract. And so it ended up working out where theysigned me to a new contract. I don't think they thought it wasgoing to work. I thought, I think they thought the show was over,you know, and this will be it. I think everybody was surprised,including myself. I ended up retooling the show, kind ofreinventing it, reinventing myself. I looked at it as anopportunity to just get better. You know, I had a band withFloorwax as well, that was real successful. I looked at that as anopportunity to, as kind of a rebirth. And, and the approach that Itook and it took a lot of work, it was a lot of work with the radioshow and the band, to get it actually to the level we were beforeand in some cases even better.
Joe: Right. So the timeline is you start withFloorwax. What year?
Rick: 1990.
Joe: And then it ends January of what year?
Rick: Well, twenty three years later. So thatwould be 2013. Is what you
Joe: Got
Rick: Walked
Joe: It.
Rick: Off? Yeah.
Joe: Ok. OK. And you picked up and you justjust it was it's amazing. So I know that the list could be huge,but let's just for the sake of keeping it condensed. I know just afew times you invited me into the studio and I've been in town orI've listened to it from being in Arizona. What's the top five mostfamous people you either interviewed live in the studio or remotelyon like call-ins over the phone? I know it's ridiculous because thelist is probably hundreds.
Rick: You know what it is, it's a really hardquestion to answer.
Joe: Did any of them make you nervous? How'sthat? Maybe that would pinpoint them somebody like being reallyover the top. Well known.
Rick: I literally interviewed almost everybodyyou can think of joke. You know, if even when I was in L.A., Iworked for Westwood One and my job was to go get, to do probablyseven to 10 interviews a week of either movie stars or rock ah, youknow, rock stars, singer songwriters. So I was interviewing sevento 10 people a week for a couple of years out there. I interviewedeverybody. When somebody is new album would come out, I got to meetthem at a hotel in their hotel room, you know, and interview them.So it's all kind of a blur, to be honest
Joe: Yeah, I'm
Rick: With
Joe: Sure.
Rick: You. You started naming names. I could Icould tell you. Oh, yeah.
Joe: Yeah.
Rick: I could tell you a story about
Joe: Yep.
Rick: That Westwood One gig did make me areally good interviewer or me, you know, it made me really know howto interview people and how to how to listen to people instead of,instead of having a list of questions in your ask, that you ask,you know, question number seven off your list, while they'retalking, you're already looking at question number eight. You'rejust like, you've just got to let it flow, you know, and it just gowith the conversation because a lot of these people, they, they,they're not that comfortable being interviewed. It's not theirthing, though, some of them are great, like David Lee Roth. That'sa guy I've interviewed many times. All you gotta do is turn the micon and let em' go and just try to guide it, you know and try to,hopefully you get from point A to point B to point C without losingyour license. You know, guys like that, Ted Nugent,
Joe: Right.
Rick: Ted Nugent, you just let him go. But youtry to guide them, you know, along the way to try to get what youwant out of them. Guys like that are real easy, but a lot of them,they really have very little to say. A lot of a lot of these rockstars are somewhat introverted, movie stars, really aintroverted. Movie stars, you take away a script, they don'thave a whole lot to say. You know, they're always you know, they'regoing off, everything they do is off a script. You've seen some ofthese guys on the talk shows. You know, it takes a really goodinterviewer, Jimmy Fallon and David Letterman guys like that, tobring them out. And so you learn how to do that. I like I have somany. I really.
Joe: I know, I know it's it's it's
Rick: We
Joe: A bad
Rick: Wear
Joe: Question.
Rick: This watch. We can do this for hours
Joe: I know,
Rick: A day
Joe: I
Rick: For.
Joe: Know. All right. So now you are currentlyon the Fox, 1.3, 103.5
Rick: Yeah.
Joe: On weekdays. And you've been doing thatalone since the spring of 2013. Correct. January 2013, that's
Rick: Since
Joe: When four
Rick: January
Joe: Weeks
Rick: Of
Joe: Left.
Rick: 2013.
Joe: Ok. So on top of that, you recently. Idon't, I say recently only because in this industry, you know, acouple of years is still recent. But you, is it true that you'rethe color commentator for the Denver Broncos? I just didn'twant
Rick: This
Joe: To get
Rick: Is true,
Joe: It wrong. I don't
Rick: Joe.
Joe: Want to say.
Rick: Yes, it
Joe: And
Rick: Is.
Joe: Just for
Rick: Yes,
Joe: The audience
Rick: It is a.
Joe: Sake, because I didn't even though I watcha sh*t ton of football, I didn't really understand what color colorcommentator was. So if you can quickly, you know, explain what thatmeans, because I don't want to I don't want to give it the wrongdescription.
Rick: Ok, I, I've been doing play by play,which is a different role for a long time, going back to when I wasin college, I'd been doing play by play of high school and collegegames for, I got back into it at least 10, maybe 12 years ago, andI was working for Comcast here in Denver doing games play by play.So it wasn't like this whole thing of being at the booth wasforeign to me. So four years ago. Ed McCaffrey was the colorcommentator on the radio on the Broncos flagship station. EdMcCaffrey, great football player, Denver Bronco legend. And he forsome reason had to miss a game and so my boss called me like on aTuesday and he said, "Hey, Ed can't do the game Sunday inJacksonville, what do you think? You think you can do it?" I waslike, yeah, yeah, I can do it. No fear, right?. I'd never been acolor commentator before, but I understood the role because I'vedone play-by-play so much, so I prepped for it really hard and didthe game and it went really, really well. And so much so that Ithought, you know, you know if Ed ever decides he doesn't want todo this anymore, I'm going to throw my hat in the ring and see if Ican get that job. And it happened the following spring. EdMcCaffrey decided that he wanted to spend more time with his kids.He's got at the time, I think he had two kids in the NFL and one incollege. Christian McCaffrey, his son, is one of the best runningbacks in the NFL. So he, he decided he wanted to watch him playmore and didn't have time to do this.
Rick: So, I did get the job and so the colorcommentator is a is a different role than play by play. The colorcommentator has a very short window to try to color up thebroadcast, keep in mind, this is radio, not TV. It's different onTV, on TV, you don't have to explain what happened becauseeverybody can see it. On the radio, you have to paint the picture.And so the play by play guy will tell what happened on the play andin some cases even break it down. And then I have about maybe 10seconds in between plays to say something that he didn't alreadysay that actually add something to the broadcast and moves itforward and kind of resets the next play and so, it's a realchallenge. It's a real challenge. I always thought play by play waseasier, I still do, I think for me, play by play is easier to dothan the color roll. So it was a bit of a learning curve on it. ButI really, really enjoy it because it's challenged me for the firsttime in a long time, not only with the prep that's involved, thatit's a lot of prep, but the speed of the broadcast is, is suchthat, you really got to be on your game because it's moving reallyfast and you got one shot. So it's like you're a Nik Wallenda, youknow, when you're on a tight rope walking across the canyon,there's no safety net. You've got to be on your game. You've got tobe super focused.
Joe: Yeah, and it has to be
Rick: And
Joe: This
Rick: That's
Joe: Super
Rick: What I like about
Joe: Delicate
Rick: It.
Joe: Balance between knowing when he's actuallydone saying what he's going to say in the play by play and whereyou guys aren't constantly stepping on on top of each other andthen there's room for the next play to come in or whatever. I hearit, I just I, I'm baffled at how it gets done so cleanly.
Rick: Yeah. And my partner, Dave Logan is oneof the best in the business. He is up in the upper elite 1 percentof play by play guys in the world and so the fact that he's sogood, of course he could cover up any mistake that I might make orif I if I, you know, stub my toe a little bit, he can completelycover it up in a very smooth way, which I'm sure he's done for memany times, you know, to make the broadcast on good. You know, thefact that I've been in broadcasting so long, well over 30 years,what, 39 years, you know that I'm able to make a broadcast soundgood.
Joe: No.
Rick: Let's figure out a way
Joe: Go
Rick: To make
Joe: Ahead.
Rick: It something.
Joe: Yeah. So
Rick: And
Joe: I
Rick: So
Joe: Just it just as we're talking
Rick: That's
Joe: About
Rick: What I
Joe: This
Rick: Do.
Joe: See how I stepped
Rick: Yeah.
Joe: Right on top. Yeah, that's right. So is ittrue? I don't know if if where I heard this, but is it true thatyou are the only broadcast person doing these NFL games that is notand an ex NFL player.
Rick: Yeah, on TV, I don't think there'sanybody certainly on ah, I don't anybody doing NFL games onTV that wasn't a player. There may be one on the radio, but I don'tknow who that would be. There's only 32 teams. So you got 32broadcast teams doing it on radio. I don't think there is a guydoing color that didn't play in the NFL. Most of the play by playguys or guys like me that are broadcast, you know, guys, you know,experience broadcast guys. We kind of flipped the formula in ourbroadcast because Dave Logan played 10 years in the NFL. So you'vegot to play by play guy that played 10 years in the NFL. And thenme being a broadcaster that I know the game, I understand the game,I played a little bit of football myself, so I totally get it. Butit is pretty unique.
Joe: And you're having to do what is an eightaway and eight home?
Rick: Yeah, eight home/away and then fourpreseason games, so 20 games a year. Last year we did twenty onebecause we had the Hall of Fame game.
Joe: Right. And what's the most gruelingconflict with the rad... that, you know, the morning drive timeshow now with you having to do the football games, what what daysare the hardest for you? Is it Mondays because of the Sunday gameor?
Rick: Well, if we play a game like on a Sundaynight or Monday night or Thursday night on the road, I don't workthe next morning on the radio because we will get into 4:00 o'clockin the morning, sometimes 05:00 in the morning. So I take themorning show off. I do two radio shows a day, I don't know, I don'tthink you're even aware of it. But I'm do two live radio shows aday. So I do the morning show on the Fox actually from 6 to 9 a.m.from 9 to noon, I do a talk show on K.O.A., which is the Broncosflagship station with Dave Logan and Kathie Lee, who's on with meon the Fox show. So I'm doing six hours of my radio in a day.
Joe: I had no idea.
Rick: That also also pretty, pretty unheard upin a major market.
Joe: Yeah, I had no idea that you were doingthat extra stuff, I had only known about the
Rick: Yeah.
Joe: The Morning show so well.
Rick: Well, this is why you don't hear from memuch anymore. [laughter]
Joe: I don't that's why I'm excited that I haveyou right now and I can't let you go until I get through
Rick: Yes.
Joe: A lot of this stuff. So let's let's bounceover to, you know, you and I have this mutual kinship and inplaying drums. So when did you start playing? And then we skippedover it a little bit, when you're talking about you and Floorwaxand having your band, which was the Groove Hawgs and now you haveThe Rick Lewis Project and you run the band and, and you and I hadthis same sort of leadership role in our bands. But when did youstart playing drums?
Rick: Yeah, I started playing drums at 17, Ibelieve. I played piano when I was a little kid. Ah likeclassically trained, you know, lessons, piano recitals, all ofthat. I probably played piano for about three and a half years, Inever liked it, but my mom was kind of forcing it on me. I wouldhave much rather been outside playing football or baseball orwhatever. So that was always the dilemma for me and I was prettygood. I picked it up pretty quick, I could read music and all ofthat. And then she finally, she, she gave up and said, "Ok, you canquit piano and do whatever you want." You know, I'd always wantedto play drums, I was always interested in drums but my mom and dadwould never get me even a snare drum up. You know, we had five kidsin the family, we didn't know we didn't have enough money for, togo out and buy me a drum kit. So I just kind of put that on theback burner, but at 17, somehow my younger brother got a drum kit.I don't know, I don't remember how it happened. Maybe my mom or dadgave it to him for a Christmas gift or whatever, and I startedplaying drums at 17 and I realized right away, like, you know, Ican I can kind of play these. And, so I really took a greatinterest in it, and I played a lot of self-taught, as you know,played along to records, you know, put headphones on and just playthe songs. And so I learned how to play, I think I learned how toplay musically, you know, I never took any lessons and so for me, Iplay like the record because that's how I learned how to play. Andlike I say, I was so people I don't have chops, I have a chop, Igot one. You know, I can play a song, I can play a groove, right?That's all I got, I can play a groove, but
Joe: You have more than that, trust me, I'veseen you play.
Rick: Well, I don't. But I, I played until Iwas twenty one, when I went to NAU we'd go to the music room, meand a bunch of guys, you know, and we would jam in the music room.Remember I played once in a country bar in Flagstaff. You know, ittook a lot of beer to
Joe: Yes.
Rick: Get up there to do that. And I did it andI just I just loved it. But then when I moved to LA to be an actor,I quit playing drums and I didn't pick up a pair of drumsticksagain until I was probably 40 years old, so almost a 20 year spanof not
Joe: Well.
Rick: Playing drums. And then when I was 40, Igot it, I got interested again and I bought myself a drum kit andstarted to try to get up to speed and we formed a band pretty soonafter that. That was the Groove Hawgs Band and with the connectionsI have here in town, I was able to hire the best musicians aroundhere and it was it was a pretty good band. It because of who wewere on the radio and Floorwax was in the band too. Because of whowe were on the radio and the high profile that we had, we weregetting really good gigs. The first gig we ever played was at RedRocks...sorry, Joe.
Joe: I know, it's like man!
Rick: Yeah, we opened for the Doobie Brothersand CCR at Red Rocks and it was just amazing! And I was working ashard as I could to get back up to speed. You know, just practicingevery day and having had no formal training, you know, was strictlyjust instinctive, you know, trying to get better and once again,just play the music, just trying to play songs. You know, for somereason, I got a really good natural feel for song structure. Sothat that, that's a gift. And being able to play drums is probably,it might be my favorite thing I do right now is maybe playingmusic, which is saying a lot because I do a lot of really coolthings. The Groove Hawgs got to play big shows and we played, weopened up for ZZ Top and James Brown and Leonard Skinner and TedNugent to Def Leppard. We got to open probably seven shows at RedRocks.
Joe: That's amazing!
Rick: We opened for The Who at the PepsiCenter...that was amazing! Back in 2007 or 8, there was The Who andThe Pretenders at The Pepsi Center. So we played some really
Joe: And you do it right, too, because you havea drum tech and I don't
Rick: Good gigs
Joe: So you just rollup, with your stick bag onyour shoulder and you're like, oh, here.
Rick: Yeah, yeah. The whole breaking down
Joe: Oh,
Rick: The drum kit,
Joe: God.
Rick: They...love...about it...that's onethat's the big downside of playing drums. But luckily for us, youknow, we the band gets paid pretty good for doing these gigs and soI can afford to pay my band
Joe: Yeah.
Rick: Members really well. You
Joe: Yeah.
Rick: Know, I told you they get paid reallywell and so I can also afford to have a
Joe: Yep.
Rick: Drum tech who can do all of that
Joe: Yeah.
Rick: For me as well. So I'm not in it for themoney.
Joe: No,
Rick: Believe me,
Joe: I
Rick: This has nothing to do with money for me,just playing music.
Joe: Know, I know. And it's too bad. I knowright now it's like a kind of a tough question, but you guys arestill doing local gigs around town. Like when things get on theother side of what's happening now with COVID-19, you guys will beout doing your normal festivals that, you normally just play likefestivals and things, right? You're not.
Rick: Yeah, we have a new band, The Rick LewisProject started in 2013. So seven years in already and once againhired the best musicians around here. We played some big gigs too,which we've opened for Leonard Skinner and you know, many otherpeople like that. We did a show with Ziggy Marley, I mean, we werethe only non reggae band on the lineup and pulled it off. We endedup switching like four or five of our songs into reggae songs. Inever played reggae before and we pulled it off. So it's it'sreally, really cool. But yeah, we have a residency at a casino hereso that we can play anytime we want, pretty much so we play thereabout every six weeks. In the summer, we play a lot of festivalsand we do still support some big acts. We've got a show in Augustwith Government Mule on the books. Hopefully we'll be able to playit. You know, that type of thing. And others were I mean, we werejust in the process of really rounding out our schedule for 2020when all of this Coronavirus
Joe: Yeah.
Rick: Hit. Hopefully we can come out of it.You
Joe: Yeah.
Rick: Know, who knows? I think I think we will.I think by at least July, I would think, we'll be able to startplaying live shows again and people will be able to start going toconcerts again...I'm optimistic
Joe: Yeah.
Rick: About that. But
Joe: Yeah.
Rick: Who knows?
Joe: Yeah, it's crazy. So this is something Idon't know if I've ever asked you or we talked about and I'll havea few more things, so I'm not going to keep you much longer. But ifyou had the opportunity with all you know about music and all themusicians you've made and all of the conversations that you'veheard, if you had ever had the chance to become a professionaltouring drummer over being the, you know, the radio personalitythat you are and all of that, would you ever have chosen that, thatlifestyle?
Rick: Well, that's a good question!
Joe: I know you love performing in front ofpeople. When I watch you play, I'm like, you know, you are so inyour element doing it and and you're a great frontman when, whenyou know, anytime that I've jumped in behind the drums and you'verun up to the front of the stage and like, you know, you're a greatfront man as well. So I just was like, man I wonder if he ever goesGod, if I had only started that earlier and, and my path taking mein that direction.
Rick: That's a great question! I have noregrets but I do think that looking back on it now, I wish I wouldhave focused more on music than sports because, sports was my wholeworld back then and now I realize that for most people, yourathletic career is over and after high school and if you're lucky,after college. Very, very few get to play professionally or make aliving out of playing sports. Looking back on it now, I wish Iwould have stuck to the piano. You know, I told my mom thatrecently. I said, I wish you would have forced me to continue toplay, just to establish, you know, that side of me. I wish, youknow what I did? I did discover drums young enough at 17 that Icould have been probably a pretty darn good drummer by now, goodenough to tour with a big band. I don't know if I put enough workinto it to be that good. I think, I have, I have whats inside of meto be that good but I haven't put in the work you know, because ofeverything else I do. You know, I wasn't a guy that could sit downand play drums for 10 hours a day, which a lot of guys do it, youmight have been one of them. I was a guy who could sit down andplay drums for an hour a day. And so that's what I did, you know,for 20 plus years, I would play for an hour a day. That's all I hadtime for,you know, with a family and an established radio show andeverything else that I was doing. But boy, you know what? If Icould, I sometimes say, man, if if like Earth, Wind & Fire wouldhire me to go on a tour, because I love playing funk music, that'smy thing. If I could be the drummer and Earth, Wind & Fire on onetour,
Joe: Yeah.
Rick: that would be hard to turn that down, thereally hard to turn that down. But, but, you know, a lot ofmusicians, a lot of these successful musicians that we all know andlove, they've had a lot of hardships along the way and a lot ofit's drugs and alcohol. Almost every one of these successful bandsgoes through that. You know what? I don't know, man, I don't thinkI'd change anything. You know look look, you know, my friend DannySeraphine, who is the drummer from Chicago...longtime drummer fromChicago. I just watched a documentary on the band and I think itwas on Netflix and drugs and alcohol once again, you know, TerryKath's ends up killing himself. Maybe accidentally, maybe not. Butyou watch every documentary on Netflix about a successful rockbands, it's drugs and alcohol that takes them, almost all of themdown. I don't know if it would be worth it to have to go throughthat type of thing but I did take one lesson on drums and that wasDanny Seraphine. I told you that, right?
Joe: Yeah.
Rick: Yeah. Danny, Danny Seraphine came this mybasem*nt
Joe: Yeah.
Rick: Right here that we're sitting in.
Joe: He's a sweetheart.
Rick: Danny Seraphine came over and spent aweekend, I think, or two or three nights at my house and I got todrum kits set up in my house and he goes, "Hey man, let's get out ajam a little bit." He goes, "I want to see if I can help you." AndI was pretty intimidated, but once again, no fear. So we sat downand we played together for like 90 minutes together, side by side.You know, he'd play a lick and I'd try to copy it. You know, thathe'd play a groove and I jump in on it. And then he showed me acouple of things and after about 90 minutes, we stopped. He said,said, "You're a good player" and this is a long time ago, this isprobably almost 15 years ago, he said, he said, "You're a goodplayer," he goes, "but I can tell you don't have you." He said, "Ican tell you you don't think you're a good player." He goes, "Youshould know you're a good player" and he goes, You have good time",he said "You have a great sense of time, great feel, a greatgroove." And he said, "Take that with you every time you play andrealize that every musician wants a drummer that has those threethings, time, feel groove..You said you got it." He says believeme. "That's what all these guitar players want is a drummer likethat," he said "they don't want drummers that are playing all overthe song and doing drum fills, you know, every break," And he said,"Take that and be confident that you have that." And that reallyhelped me a lot. So that one lesson from Danny Seraphine reallymeant a lot to me and it gave me the confidence to, you know, bemyself in play and play like I do, which is my one chop, I've gotthe one, I got the one
Joe: Yeah.
Rick: Here.
Joe: Doesn't matter a grooves, it feels great.That's all right, man. All right, so what's next for Rick Lewis?What's...anything that is a super exciting that you can talk aboutor you know, I know you got a sh*t ton on your plate, I don't evenknow how you sleep. But just wondered if there's anything new youwanted to talk about before I let you go.
Rick: I've gotten really good at living in themoment and living in the now.
Joe: Get.
Rick: I really don't think that far down theroad. I don't live in the future very much. So I really just takeit day to day and especially what we're going through right now inthe world. It doesn't, I mean, we can only just live right now. Youknow what I have right now, I have everything I need right now.Everything is good right now. If you start thinking too far downthe future, too far down the road, it gives you anxiety, becauseyou because you can't control it. You know, fear anxiety is fearbased and so I've got a very, very busy schedule. I'm right on thefront lines here being on the radio, doing two shows a day, talkingabout COVID-19. Trying to give people, you know, a feeling of hopeand optimism, a diversion, a form of entertainment, that can taketheir mind away from all the bad news and just trying to do theright thing. You know, like I said earlier, this is what I was bornto do and I'm doing it at a very tough time in history right now.I'm optimistic it will get better and I truly believe it will. Asfar as me personally, I just want to stay healthy.
Rick: I want my family to stay healthy and keepdoing good work no matter what it is. I'm blessed to be able to doa lot of things at a very high level, from playing music to doingtwo radio shows a day to calling the Denver Broncos games with alegend like Dave Logan and just trying to be a better person. Youknow the way I'm looking at this, this situation that we have rightnow is we're being called to, to use this to be better people. Youknow, there's a portal that we're gonna go through right now, we'reall going through it together and we need to rise and shine. Weneed to be better. So when we come out the other side, we're betterpeople and the world is better. And that's what I'm focused onright now, just trying to be the best I can be every day. And ashard as this is, I want to make sure that I'm a better person, whenwe get to the other side of it. So that's what's in the future forRick Lewis, just being a better person.
Joe: That's awesome, man. I really appreciateyou doing this. It's an honor to have you on the show. I knowyou're busy as hell. Can you just once again give the two showsthat you do in the times so that everyone knows?
Rick: Yeah, for anybody, anybody interested,you can listen outside of Denver on the iHeartRadio app, which isfree. I do a morning show 6-9am Denver time on 103.5, the Fox.That's kind of a more of a raucous entertainment based music show.And then from 9am to noon, I'm on KOA, which is a big giant AMradio station, that's the home of the Denver Broncos and theColorado Rockies and it's a more of a news talk format. We do kindof a lifestyle show, not during this coronavirus thing, pretty muchall we're talking about right now, I do that 6 to noon. DenverBroncos games are on the Denver Broncos Radio Network, they're onhundreds of radio stations once the season starts. Also on SiriusXM, as you can hear the games on there. My band, I've got a bandFacebook page, it's The Rick Lewis Project. So go, go to Facebookand look up The Rick Lewis Project. I've got a whole slew ofperformance videos up there from shows going back years. You'll geta good idea what the band is all about. You can follow me onTwitter and Instagram at 1, the number one, Rick Lewis, if you'reinterested in and right back at you, Joe, you know, you've alwaysbeen a source of inspiration for me, too. You know, you're a greatdrummer! I'm just a decent drummer. But, you know, I wish I couldplay like you. And I look up to you not only as a drummer, but as aman. I see what you're doing, I, I follow you on social media, Isee what you're trying to accomplish. We're a lot of like in manyways. And you are a grinder with talent, just keep doing what youdo.
Joe: Thank you so much, man, I reallyappreciate you, I love you and stay healthy and we will talksoon.
Rick: Love you too Joe
Joe: All right brother!
Rick: Thank you...thanks!
