Can you remember your first concert or the thrill of buying your first album? Our guest for this episode, the self-taught musician and radio personality, Ron Coolen, takes us down memory lane to his early experiences with music. He shares his affinity for heavy metal music, sparked off by his first album purchase, Boston's "Don't Look Back." A resident of Amsterdam, Ron is a family man who has chosen his passion for music over the city's famous nightlife.
Our journey through the world of heavy metal doesn't end there. We reflect upon the bands that have shaped our musical tastes over the years, from ACDC and Van Halen to the more modern bands like Slipknot and Korn. We explore the impact of singers joining established bands and consider the change it brings in the group dynamics and sound. Touching upon concerts, we reminisce about the magic of floor standing and shoulder rides, a lost tradition in the modern gig scene.
Ron continues to inspire us with his story of perseverance and passion. His journey from a dreamer to a successful musician is a testament to the power of following your dreams. We end our conversation with a sneak peek into Ron's upcoming album, symbolizing his commitment to continue creating music that people appreciate. Join us on this musical journey, it's filled with soulful stories and inspiration, all served with a heavy dose of rock'n'roll.
Watch the full episode on YouTube
Check out the Playlist on Spotify
Follow us Everywhere
Make sure to HIT that LIKE BUTTON and SUBSCRIBE to our Channel to be notified of new episodes!
Please share our page with your friends!
We always have a new episode every Monday at 1 pm
Rock on
Can you remember your first concert or the thrill of buying your first album? Our guest for this episode, the self-taught musician and radio personality, Ron Coolen, takes us down memory lane to his early experiences with music. He shares his affinity for heavy metal music, sparked off by his first album purchase, Boston's "Don't Look Back." A resident of Amsterdam, Ron is a family man who has chosen his passion for music over the city's famous nightlife.
Our journey through the world of heavy metal doesn't end there. We reflect upon the bands that have shaped our musical tastes over the years, from ACDC and Van Halen to the more modern bands like Slipknot and Korn. We explore the impact of singers joining established bands and consider the change it brings in the group dynamics and sound. Touching upon concerts, we reminisce about the magic of floor standing and shoulder rides, a lost tradition in the modern gig scene.
Ron continues to inspire us with his story of perseverance and passion. His journey from a dreamer to a successful musician is a testament to the power of following your dreams. We end our conversation with a sneak peek into Ron's upcoming album, symbolizing his commitment to continue creating music that people appreciate. Join us on this musical journey, it's filled with soulful stories and inspiration, all served with a heavy dose of rock'n'roll.
Watch the full episode on YouTube
Check out the Playlist on Spotify
Follow us Everywhere
Make sure to HIT that LIKE BUTTON and SUBSCRIBE to our Channel to be notified of new episodes!
Please share our page with your friends!
We always have a new episode every Monday at 1 pm
Rock on
Welcome everyone to Music Junkies, a podcast about people sharing extraordinary stories about how music has impacted their lives. Welcome everyone to Music Junkies. I'm your host. Annette Smith, and our guest today, started his love for heavy metal music in 1978. After spending three useless years in music school at the age of 10 playing keyboards, he decided to become a self-taught musician. The first band was born in 1983. He's a guitarist, a drummer and a radio personnel. The long, intense journey resulted in the release of the album Rise, which is not only global but really recognized throughout everywhere, which is amazing.
Speaker 1:And I love that you're in Amsterdam right now. Right, that's pretty cool. He's living his dream and creating his own music. Please welcome Ron Cooling to the show. Well, welcome Ron. Finally.
Speaker 2:Thank you, thank you, yeah, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:Thanks for joining me on this show. But before I kind of dive into your playlist, I am curious what was your experience putting the playlist together for me today?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've actually put a lot of thought in that Thinking of, yeah, you mentioned, come up with some good stories, and I thought, yeah, do I have them? Or what can I say? So basically what I came up with is I thought, yeah, every song has, well, not always a story or something, but every song tells something about myself, tells something about a certain period in my life or my development as an artist, and there are some stories associated with that. So I thought it's kind of a career overview of all I did.
Speaker 1:That's great. So I want to get started on your first song. I'm going to play a little snippet of it and then we'll go from there, so give me a second here just to pull it up. Right, boston, don't look back. Who doesn't love Boston really?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I didn't hear that.
Speaker 1:By the way, no, oh, you didn't hear it.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, but I saw you swinging it, so I thought it's got to be a good song.
Speaker 1:It's got to be a good song.
Speaker 2:Now Boston. I mean it was the first album I bought, one of the first albums I think I was. The album came out around 1976. And I think that was in the first year that I started buying albums and vinyl albums. It was, and it was in the time where I was listening to Santana, dire Straits, gary Rafferty, and certainly there was Boston. It was a lot heavier and I liked it. I liked that heavy music, I liked the guitar soloing. I've been watching that album cover. I must have spent days, weeks, months just looking at the cover and looking at the pictures of the musicians and that was really impressive and I think that was the first hard rock oriented album that I bought. I still love it until today. I think it's one of the most classic albums that was ever made in the history of music.
Speaker 1:I absolutely agree. Who doesn't love Boston? I think a lot of people, too, forget how many songs they actually know. When you hear a Boston album Like, oh, wow, yes, I remember that. I remember that because a lot of people only think of a few Boston songs that are overplayed on the radio, but then you go and listen to the album or you go see them in concert and you're like, wow like.
Speaker 2:I know a lot of Boston songs. Yeah, exactly, I love it. I love it Absolutely. I absolutely love it. I think it's one of the albums that has never been topped by any other album that came out ever since. So, do you?
Speaker 1:remember the first concert you ever been to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's actually one of my other songs.
Speaker 1:Oh is it? Don't tell us that. We can't tell us that, and I'm actually going to just fix the sound here. So we're not going to talk about your concert because you said it's in there, so that's you know. We don't want to wreck anybody's story as we go through it. So tell me what you do all the way in Amsterdam. Do you do any fun and exciting stuff? Are you touring all over the place or are you picking up girls on the red light?
Speaker 2:restaurant. No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm a serious family man. I'm happily married. I have two kids that are studying. I've left all my wild years way behind.
Speaker 1:No more red light restaurant.
Speaker 2:And it's yeah, but it's actually in what? The best tourist attraction of Amsterdam, the red light district, every day overcrowded people Really, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's just tourists. There's nothing strange about it.
Speaker 1:You guys are just so used to it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh yeah. Well, when I come there.
Speaker 1:I want to go see it too, so I'm like all the other.
Speaker 2:It's, it's it's sensation to see it. But you know the I think of all the people that go there, of the hundred people that go there, I think 90 people go there just to to work there and to see what's happening. I only tend to make use of the services that are being offered.
Speaker 1:I love. It All right, let's hit your next song with sound. Again. Another incredible band ACDC.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. This was a. I came from Boston and I developed a bit towards the more hard rock style bands and you know ACDC was my first real hard rock love, and still until today and I cherish all the albums that they made with Bond's God, but their first singer.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And and actually that was when I was thinking about. You know, it was good when you ask about all these stories, because then you start thinking about why you love certain bands or why you do certain things or why you did certain things. But and actually I realized when thinking about it that it was a big coincidence that I actually got in touch with this whole other rosy song, because what happened it was that I was it was that in Holland at the time, and I think it was 1978 or something or 1979 or we always had on the radio. I was every Friday I was sitting next to the radio with my cassette recorder recording songs from the radio and they were broadcasting the top 40 songs of the week every Friday afternoon. And at some point at a Friday I couldn't. I wasn't home, I think I had soccer training or something and I asked my sister. I said please can you record the song so don't look back by Peter Tosh and Mick Jagger. And I want, I want that song on my tape because tomorrow we go on holiday, you know, and I want to have a lot of music with me so I can listen to that on a on while on holiday.
Speaker 2:And she made a mistake because she didn't record Peter Tosh and Mick Jagger, but she recorded ACD. She's a whole lot of rosy, so and then she said what the fuck did you do? You know, I, you recorded the wrong song, and I and, and then I started listening to ACD. She thought, shit, you know, this is it and that's how it, that's how it actually started and and, yeah, you know, acd has been always, always my big, my big favorite band together with Van Halen, by the way, until today. But the older period.
Speaker 1:So you were a more of a Bon Scott guy, not a Brian Johnson guy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm a both. Both and David and David, you know.
Speaker 1:I am too. I was just on a podcast the other day and they did. They wanted me to bring an album and I just saw it like from the 80s and I was like what's like a really good album that mostly like every single song on there. And I did Prince Purple Rain because I was like so many great songs on that album, so I brought that. And then they brought 1984 Van Halen against that album. And the one guy said that he liked Sammy Hagar and I was like so I let him do his spuel and then I was like okay, like I hate, I couldn't handle it, I did not like it at all. I was a David Lee Roth girl and so it's so interesting that you said that about David Lee Roth.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I mean, if you look at Van Halen, to me they completely changed their style and their songs when they, when they changed to Sammy Hagar yeah and I, that was like a new band to me and and always my friends and my friends that I have that I play music with One of them is also a big ACDG fan. We always speak about the new singer when we speak about Brian Johnson, and he's been in the band for more than 40 years.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But we call him still the new singer, because we're all. We're all. You know, it's just bonds cut.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:We're all bonds cut fans.
Speaker 1:It's a hard thing to do, like coming into a band that's been established, like it's different if they're you're just kind of touring around and nobody really knows you very much. But if you've been around for like 10 years and you have a fan base and people know who you are and then you go and try to change, like just like Motley Crue, it's like we know, like Vince Neil is not Vince Neil the way he used to be Vince Neil, but still it doesn't make sense to have another singer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. But I must say when John Corabi joined Motley Crue, I think that album musically is one of the best albums they ever made, but somehow I think it didn't. Just didn't work. Yeah, because, vince Neil, it was Motley Crue.
Speaker 1:That's right yeah.
Speaker 2:But they really made a great album and I just with ACDG and I mean Back in Black was a great album, but but after that every album was a bit it kind of slowed down. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And with Van Halen, I think, with Sammy Hagelkram, I think, at 5150, or you ate one too. It was okay, you know, but it was not. It didn't have the magic of women and children first, or Van Halen two or one, or 1984.
Speaker 1:And he can't do the splits in high kicks.
Speaker 2:No, exactly.
Speaker 1:And he doesn't look good in spandex at all. Like come on Nobody wants to see Sammy Hagar in spandex.
Speaker 2:No, no, well, especially no no not now Anyways either.
Speaker 1:While we're talking about Van Halen, we better play them Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would have loved to have Eddie Van Halen on the show, like I think that would have been amazing Again, such an incredible guitar player.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I saw an interview with him on YouTube. I think it was recorded a few years ago, I think before, not long before he passed away, and it was an interview 45 minutes on American TV show, I think, or it was in American crowd. He was so humble, he was such a humble, nice person and he was speaking for 45 minutes and, yeah, I always liked him very much. I always thought that he must be a nice guy, but this really proved that he was a really nice, humble, humble guy and that was nice to see him in that interview, to see the personal side of him, while I've all my life listened and watched him his musical side and I was always flabbergasted with what he did, and the reason I chose Hangam High is that what he's doing here at the intro is actually, if you look at Eddie Van Halen and his fans, then most of his fans.
Speaker 2:Everyone always speaks about his soloing capacity, about eruption, about his great solo work, but what he's even maybe even better at is what he's extremely good at is his rhythm and his rhythm and his groove and this part of Hangam High his rhythm and groove is incredible. What he's playing there, and there are a lot of great guitar players that try to play this part and they just can't. They just can't do it. It's a unique part of what he's able to play and that's why I chose this part of it, because this shows something that he's not totally famous for but people don't often realize it. But I'm gonna say, you know, when I saw him play Eruption and if you see him play the solos and beat it or on jump, and you know the finger tapping which he kind of more or less invented, it's spectacular.
Speaker 2:But I'm a drummer, so I always listen to groove. Originally I'm a drummer, so I listen to groove, and when you hear him and see him play this kind of stuff that you heard just now, that's incredible, it's incredible. And he is, you know, his mother, I think, is Indonesian, so he has Asian roots and you know, they have just have more groove in them and we always tend to think over here in Holland, you know, eddie and Alex, they were Dutch people, but, yeah, their mother was Indonesian, you know, and so she was not Dutch, but they just have more groove and most Dutch are more like tak tak, tak, tak, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, rigid, you gotta massage them before they go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, and he's just spectacularly good at that. And so, yeah, acdc Van Halen driven by, initially driven by Boston, but the ACDC Van Halen have been my yeah, my all time, all time favorite bands. Who's been?
Speaker 1:somebody that you've worked with that really maybe motivated you or gave you just like some great advice when you were first starting out. That kind of stuck with you.
Speaker 2:I think that was John Gallagher of Raven. I don't know if you know the band they are English band. When I was young in kind of in this age where we talking about when I was listening to ACDC Van Halen then there was this same period. There was this new wave of British heavy metal was coming up.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And all these new bands, like you know, like Dev, lapwood, sax and Iron Maiden, and part of that was also a band called Raven, and they still exist until today actually, and what was common in that in those days were that you were kind of pen piling with people, you know, writing letters, yeah, and I was a pen pal with their singer, bass player, john Gallagher, and I really admired him, you know, and his playing was amazing and this band was amazing and at the same time I started playing in a band as well and I started. We also exchanged music and he sent me demo tapes of Raven. At some point I started sending him tapes of myself. In hindsight they were all shit, you know, they were.
Speaker 2:I thought, you know why did I send him this? Because what must he have thought, you know, when he got this rubbish in his email. But he stayed very polite and he didn't say, you know, this was shit or was really bad or poor playing, or because it was, but he stayed very polite and he said he gave me an advice. He mentioned something to me that I still remember every now and then he's, and he said you know, less is more. You know, put in less and it will sound better. Yeah, we were kind of kind of in an overdrive, always much less, much riffs and very intense. But he said less is more and yeah, that's something I want playing music, I everyone now, and then, you know, pops up in my head that that would be considered as some advice. Yeah, we're young, starting magician.
Speaker 1:So when you started your first band, like obviously you were excited, was it? Just like some buddies, you're like you play this, you play this, I'm going to do this, let's create a band.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was kind of like that and it became, but we were really serious.
Speaker 2:You know, we were kids in high school but we were really serious. I was kind of, you know, I tried keyboards, like you mentioned in the intro, and then I tried to learn guitar, which I failed at that point and then, because I just couldn't get the hang of it you didn't have YouTube or something and I didn't want to go to music school because I hated being taught by teachers, so and I couldn't figure it out myself guitar playing. So when me and my buddies, when we decided let's start a band, you know, then there was only one position I could take, which was a drummer. And I did have some feel for drumming because I was always, you know, ticking with my hands and rhythm, so I had some talent for that. So it was okay to start as a drummer. But we were, yeah, we were very serious and I was really thinking, you know, we can make it. And we did that for two, three years. And then the band split up because our band leader, he got an offer from a professional band and he's still professional until today.
Speaker 1:No way.
Speaker 2:So yeah, so he kind of, he kind of made it in music and so, yeah, it was a good starting point. But he, he, actually he went on and became a professional musician and I didn't, you know, I followed a safe route go to school and finishing my school and starting to work and playing as an amateur, you know, as a hobby.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Playing music. But the start, yeah, that first band was really. It was really cool, you know, because we were really ambitious and we were really thinking we could make it.
Speaker 1:Were you guys pretty upset when he laughed, or were you excited for him?
Speaker 2:Well, both yeah, Both yeah, yeah, I was. It was great, you know that he was asked to join the band. But at the same time we knew, you know, yeah, he was our band leader, he wrote the songs, he was you know, he was a frontman, he played guitar. But at the same time we thought, yeah, you know, this is the end. We, he cannot be replaced. So it was the feeling was, yeah, it was double, it was a double, yeah, it was a but. But yeah, you know, it was good for him and we couldn't. We couldn't ask him to not take the offer.
Speaker 2:No for sure.
Speaker 1:Discourse him later, right, and then get free concert tickets to his show every time. Exactly and backstage passes and girls and hotels and what you know he's got to make up to you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I still doing that until today. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Grind him out forever, that's what I would do Exactly All right.
Speaker 2:Next song oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Gangland. I haven't heard these guys and like I feel like a long time A long time.
Speaker 2:No, you, but you. You know them, Tiger's of Panthang.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is about my first concert that I went. Oh, no way. Yeah, yeah, and I was a huge. I think it must have been 1980 or something. I was a huge fan of Tiger's of Panthang and a huge fan of John Sykes who was in in the band. Later he joined Winesnake and he was on the. He played on the 1987 records. Massive fan of of of John Sykes, and you know I was.
Speaker 2:I grew up in a very small city, you know it was all very protected. And and then Tiger's of Panthang, they were going to play at a festival in the big city, you know, in the Hague, which is kind of a bit smaller than Amsterdam, but for me at that moment it was the big city and me, as a 15 year old, I needed to go there. I said you know Tiger's of Panthang, they're playing their first show ever on the mainland because they were from the UK. First show ever on the mainland. They're playing on a free festival. So I just had to go and I went with two buddies, 15 year old, jumped on the train, two hour drive but I just shit my pants when I came.
Speaker 2:When I came there, there were 30,000 people there. It was a free festival in the park over there and there was, there was this other band that were headlining there, which was a punk band, killing Joke. I don't know if you know them, but no, but they were a huge band, killing Joke. They are punk bands and they, they had a huge following.
Speaker 2:All punk guys you know with, with the, with the, they have the mohawks in the sky Starting up and all spikes and heavy, heavy guys and girls, really heavy. They were scary, they were, they were, yeah, you know, and there was this but and Tiger's of Panthang, they attracted a hard rock crowd. So there was kind of a expectation that hard rock fans and punk fans would you know that they would collide or crash on that day.
Speaker 1:Big riot or something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it didn't happen, but but walking there, you know, as a 15 year old and going there, but I still, you know, see them on stage, it was. It was so impressive and they and since they, for them it was impressive as well because it was the first time I think they played for more than two, 300 people and they were playing for 30,000 people. So they were, the band was totally pumped up. And yeah, later, you know, two, three or two or three years later, john Syke joined Thin Lizzy first and from Thin Lizzy went to White Snake. So I was lucky enough to see him at his first ever concert outside the UK.
Speaker 1:That's really cool to watch, like obviously, a band you admire and then watch that person that you admire evolve into something up like totally, you know, not a completely different way, but in a sense a completely different way, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:Did you have, like when you were growing up were you in love with 80s hair band lead singers, like was, was there, you know some some lead singer or a drummer or a guitar player that you're like, oh man, if I could be them for a day, I would totally love to do that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was mostly, you know, I was mostly watching the guitar players. So it was John Sykes, it was Gary Moore, it was Ed even Haylent, it was Angus Young, it was George Lynch, all the guitar players I wasn't you know. I thought all these, you know these singers, they were tryouts. Yeah, they were having all the girls, you know, and even the, and I thought, no, you know they, you know they, you, the only thing you can do is sing, you know, and I, I really admired, you know, very skilled guitar players, because I think guitar, guitar is my favorite instrument in the end. So, no, I was always I was admiring guitar players.
Speaker 1:Right, so they can take all the girls and the leather pants to singers, right, cause that's I was a huge, huge 80s hair band girl for sure. Like, absolutely Like, any, any and all the bands, like I. Just do you remember the posters that you had on the wall? Like, did you have any band posters on your wall? Like, who would you have on your wall?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was Fene. Yeah, it was a huge poster in the 1984, I think it was in the 1984 album. It was the huge David Roth poster that was on my on my wall and that was a band. And I once went to a Van Halen concert in 1984, and I bought this tour you know this tour book and there was a poster in it as well and that went on my walls. So, yeah, it was just Van Halen and AC Dizzy.
Speaker 1:I miss those days. I'm sure there is posters now, but I miss going to a concert or buying, like going and buying that kind of stuff. We just went to kiss a couple weeks ago and like a girl's kiss shirt that literally just said kiss on it with like fake diamonds, you know, it was like yeah 95 bucks. That's great, $95 for a black shirt that literally somebody just like used like a little jewelry maker to write kiss on there. I was just like insane, insane, it's crazy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but it's the same with concert tickets and, you know, get a beer. Everything is so incredibly expensive that, yeah, you know it's the magic for me. I've seen so many bands that in historic environments and historic concerts and so to me, the magic is most of the magic is gone, because it's especially of the older bands, you know, because they don't perform in the same way as they did, and it's something I don't want to witness. I want to cherish my old memories.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I do too, and that was one of the reasons why I wanted to go to kiss, because I knew that they would put on like an 80s show. And they totally did. They killed it Like I could not believe it. We had VIP tickets, so we got to see a private show. There was only like a hundred of us to begin with, and we went to go see them perform.
Speaker 1:So they had no makeup on in the first hour that we seen them and then during the show, obviously they had their makeup on, but I was impressed. I was like, wow, you guys can still rock out. They got to be 70, at least. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then just to be able to put a show, like the amount, like everybody was coming up to us because they're saying that how close we were to the stage, like, oh, my God, you guys are going to be so hot, like you're going to get burnt from the flames, and I was like what, what kind? What are you talking about? I've been to lots of rock concerts but they had like cannons, like a hundred of them on the stage facing the crowd that blew fire out.
Speaker 2:Like, which is crazy, right?
Speaker 1:And I was like and I miss that, because now you go to shows and it's it's the first thing that irritates me is, first of all, they have seats on the floor, like I miss the days when we get to. Yes, it sucks standing and being. You know I'm short, I'm like five three, but I miss those days of like being on the floor and then somebody just like puts you on your shoulders and you get to watch the whole concert. I miss those days. You can't even stand on your, on your chair.
Speaker 1:You can't even smoke a cigarette in there or nothing. It's just like so rigid, everything is so rigid it's like you can't enjoy these guys that you're spending $1,500 to go and see.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's true, that's true, that's same here. Magic is gone for me, yeah, and I don't go anymore to the larger concerts. I just, I still go to concerts, but I'm only small, you know. Small venues, intimate venues, I want to, you know, I want to feel the sweat, I want to see the sweat, I want to be on top of the instruments and, yeah, that's the only gigs that I still go and that I still enjoy. But the larger gigs now, you know, I don't enjoy that anymore.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I just bought tickets to go see warrant and quiet riot because I thought like there's only 3000 people. So I'm like that that will be really cool. That'll be a great show, right, Because it's intimate not very many people so I like doing the same thing, right.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:I will pay anything to go see old school 80s rock bands because I know that they're going to perform and they're going to give it all they got. They need cash.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right, and there is cash to earn, so that's right. Because there's a market for them.
Speaker 1:So All right, next song. Did you never give a damn in the first place? Maybe it's time you went to the church Isn't the interest of all the both of them. So Slipknot, a band I never really got crazy into right. I think their music is interesting for sure, but I just I didn't really get into it too much and it's amazing how many people have Slipknot on their playlist?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, well, me, neither I was. I was. I enjoyed the very early days of Slipknot. When they just came up, I saw their first concert in Holland and I Wow, it was. It was, and that's why I have it on the playlist. It was maybe the most bizarre concert I ever saw. You know, we never, we never, ever, until then you know they were. They were constantly jumping in the crowd, jumping from the monitors, jumping from the PA. They were all over the place. They were fired. There was, it was total craziness, total craziness. I've never seen it any time in my life and it it, it was really hard, you know, to understand the music. What they were playing was the rhythms and the yeah, it's messy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was mess, but but but you couldn't tell, is this, is this intelligent mess or is it just a mess? You know, yeah, you just couldn't tell because it was, it seemed intelligent, but I'm not sure it was. But the most bizarre thing that I saw there and and is that, in all this mayhem, that at some point, one of these guys I mean there are a few that are not playing an instrument, you know, that do percussion, and they're running around, and one of these guys, he went to the side of the stage, he started fishing there on stage, you know, and it was filmed, and he was there on film and I thought, well, what is this? You know, what's what's happening here? And so that was one of the most bizarre things I saw, you know. But these guys were also so hyped and so psyched about what they were, you know, they were, they were young, they were eager, they were conquering Europe and so, yeah, they did this crazy stuff. You know, this stage was incredible.
Speaker 1:And they're just slam, dancing and pissing. It's crazy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and and after that, you know, I lost interest in them because it's yeah, I don't know it's music is not. I mean, I do admire what they achieved as a band, from, I think, where they're from, from Opelso, oklahoma, or no, yeah, but they're from a, from a, from a small state in the US, and they, I mean they, conquer the world, which is which is really good, but yeah, but their music is not, doesn't appeal a lot to me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it's yeah, and it's interesting because your net your next band I grew up with, like this was pretty Like everywhere. You're like, your next two bands were everywhere and I absolutely love them. So it's interesting how I could love these next two bands but not so much, be you know, obsessed with slipknot, even though it is kind of different right. So I'm just going to jump in and play some Slayer. Slayer was very heavy when I was growing up, like early 90s very, very heavy, growing when I was growing up and Pantera and Metallica and all of that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, actually I, when I was young, I didn't like Slayer. I only started to appreciate them maybe 10 years ago, so I kind of ignore them for a whole part of my life, yeah. And then I witnessed a few gigs of them and and, and I actually I always all my life I went to a lot of concerts and and it was a Slayer concert which was the last concert I experienced without earplugs and I came. You know, I always, I never used earplugs until I was Slayer.
Speaker 2:And I came in and they came up and and I was standing in front of Kerry King and he was playing and it was so incredibly loud that afterwards I had such a beep in my ears I thought, oh, this is not good. You know, I have to stop, I have to wear earplugs and that. So that was the day I decided, you know, from now on I, if I don't want to fuck up my ears, you know I need to, I need to wear earplugs. And at the same time, when I did, I kind of lost a part of the pleasure of going to gigs because you know, your the, the sound doesn't, the the experience is, is not that good when you wear earplugs. I know it's necessary, but the experience is a lot less exciting compared to, you know, when you're not wearing earplugs. Yeah, and it's Slayer's fault.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 1:And you know it's funny because I've never wore earplugs either at a concert. And what I did notice at that kiss concert was tons of people had earplugs and I was like, oh shit, is this going to be like psychotically loud? Like should we go buy some earplugs? It was kind of freaking me out, Like are we going to get burned? And I need earplugs. Like what? Like what's happening here, Right? But yeah, Slayer, yeah, I used to have a boyfriend. My boyfriend back then was like I'm obsessed with Slayer and I wasn't too much into them either. I was more into like Metallica, Ozzy, that kind of stuff. I couldn't really get into to Slayer that much, but later on I listen like I could, like you said, appreciate them more. Back then I was just like, oh my God, we're just gonna listen to Slayer again. Like it's not like a sit around kind of band, right, it's like you're just hanging out with your friends. It's aggressive, it's like I feel like I need to like do stuff Like let's go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a band. You know you should watch them at a gig. It's not something. You go sit at home and you listen to Slayer Because you're. You know, yeah, it's not that typical music for that, but yeah, what's been you know obviously you've been in the music industry for so long what's been.
Speaker 1:You know a couple of your greatest achievements so far.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I think I think my greatest achievements have been the, the two albums that I've been able to release, because they're the second one is actually going to be released this Friday.
Speaker 1:Oh, no way yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So the first one was in 2020, four years ago, three and a half years ago and my new album is coming out this Friday. And, yeah, there are two projects that I totally ran on my own and, of course, I had to organize it myself and I wrote most of the music, I played most of the instruments and I had some help from some guest musicians, but there are huge projects to manage and to do and, in the end, what it's for me, what is all about, it proves, proved myself that I could write songs and I, up until six years ago and never wrote one song.
Speaker 1:No way.
Speaker 2:No, and I, until that time, I was always, you know, playing other people's music. I played, you know, maybe except for the first high school band, but we played our own music, but that was written by the lead singer, so I didn't write, I just played original music. But I didn't write on that. And other than that, I just played a lot of, you know, attribute stuff and covers by other, from other bands. And six years ago I wrote my first song, which is also one of the next songs. But I was, up until that time, I didn't ever write one song and I and it's not that I really wanted to prove myself that I could write it, but at some point I thought, yeah, you know, I feel I've had enough of playing other people's music. I, you know, I want to see if I can explore my own creativity. In fact, I'm right myself. And yeah, and I, I was able to do that. So I think the two albums are my biggest achievement. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:So how did you know that that was a song? Like, did you just kind of start sitting down and start writing some stuff up? Did you wake up in the middle of the night? How did that kind of come into fruition?
Speaker 2:Well, I, what was it? I think about 10 years ago, as I switched, I picked up the guitar again. You know, I what I mentioned before is that when I was young I tried to play guitar and I didn't succeed, but guitar is my favorite instrument. So 10 years ago I thought, yeah, you know, my drumming is at a certain level and if I want to improve then I need to put in a lot of time and effort and need to study and take lessons to improve. Yeah, and I didn't feel it didn't feel right to do that. I wasn't kind of a bit bored and I I didn't want to take those lessons and invest the time to, you know, to become better. And I thought, yeah, if I don't invest to become better, then it, then this is what it is, you know. And so then I thought, yeah, let's maybe start to see if I can pick up guitar and learn it down. And yeah, and then I succeeded.
Speaker 2:You know, I was able to play, to learn guitar, learn basic chords, and that's where the ideas came. And then I had an idea for a lick or for a riff or for a melody, and I always what I did in those days is when I had an idea on guitar. I just took my iPhone and I recorded it, you know, either by playing it on guitar or by whistling or by humming it. And yeah, and what I and I saw at some point I had a lot of those ideas and I started sitting and listening to all of them. I thought, you know, I can combine that with that, combine that with that. And then there's a you know, then you have a verse, and then there's a bridge, and then there's a chorus, and that's how the songs you know came about. Yeah, was it about anybody?
Speaker 1:Was it about like a certain memory or?
Speaker 2:No, I didn't write about. I never wrote lyrics, I always wrote the just the music and the lyrics are always done by other people.
Speaker 2:And to me lyrics are not that exciting, you know and I cannot tell this to my singer because he will probably hit me, he will probably hit me in the nuts or something, but for me it always has been. You know, lyrics just need to sound cool to me. You know, if they are cool words, I'm not the one who's going to sit and read the lyrics and search for a deeper meaning in the lyrics. I, yeah, I'm not that interested in lyrics, but they need to sound cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So what was it like? Kind of watching RISE, kind of go global?
Speaker 2:Yeah, very exciting.
Speaker 1:I know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was a big. When I finished, the album was at a point that I said, okay, I'm happy with it, this is what I can do. I can't do anything better than this. And yeah, you know, let's hope and pray. I don't know what the outside world is going to say, because they could maybe say, you know, this is bullshit, or this is shit, or this is worthless or useless, or please stop making music because it's awful. It's awful. That was an option, and there was also an option that people would really like it and I was happy that most people liked it and that motivated me to keep on working on the next album. It gave me confidence. Yeah, you know, you're doing something that people appreciate and that people like and that stimulated me to, you know, to continue. If they would have killed the album then I would probably stop. I've stopped. That was a serious option, I think. Well, they love the album obviously.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, excited for the next album. And then you send it right. And I'll be able to throw it out there, which I'm excited. Are you allowed to release the name of the album? The name yeah, it's called here to stay.
Speaker 2:Oh, awesome See. Yeah, you're here to stay.
Speaker 1:There you go yeah that's actually the meaning of it. Oh, I love that.
Speaker 2:With Rise. The meaning was that I wrote that. I was kind of more of a fan of the album that. I was kind of more or less the phoenix that was rising from corporate life and boring civilian life and entering into music.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And now we're here to stay. You know, I'm confident enough that I have something to offer. Yeah, I'm here to stay in music.
Speaker 1:So are you going to start touring and doing all of that kind of craziness?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we definitely want to do that. You know, I work with Keith St John, who's a maybe you know him from his work in Burning Rain and Kingdom Come. Now he's singing in and is an American guy and we definitely want to go out and tour. But it's, you know, for us, in that aspect we're starting band. You know it's difficult to it's difficult to organize tours, but we're definitely going to try and see if we can do this life.
Speaker 1:And it's you know, it's interesting because you're in an interesting time, right. We just kind of ended COVID, right, and you're like come into your own, have this album in 2020. And then it's like you know what I mean. You're just, you're so restricted as an artist because part of that whole thing of releasing an album is to go and show people who you are. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So now there are options, are, I think, much better now to go out and tour.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So yeah, we definitely want to do it. You know, and we're not a real band, you know, it's kind of my solo project, but with very high involvement with Keith, and we both want to go out and what we need to, you know, form a band, we need to have some musicians to join us on tour. So, yeah, let's see. I mean, the plan is definitely to go out and tour. Well, let me know when you're in Canada.
Speaker 1:I'll come and see you. I'll just come there, right? I'd rather go there, yeah.
Speaker 2:You would need to go and visit the Red Light District anyway, that's right.
Speaker 1:I got to hit that place up anyway, so I may as well just come there, all right. Next song I love Kill em' All. It's one of my favorite albums and I'm a drummer too and I love whiplash. Like it's like. I would love to, you know, practice more and actually do that song. But again, like you, it's just like it's time right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's time. Yeah, that's always the often the limiting factor.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'll stick to my easy stuff like AC DC. Okay, this is pretty easy to play. I still feel cool playing it. I can still say I'm a drummer, right, but I'm not intense like Lars, which would be absolutely amazing.
Speaker 2:Now I was a big Metallica fan even before they released Kill'em All because there was this in those days, 1981, 1982, there was this tape trader underground scene in Holland, in Europe, in America, there was some tape trading and in those days there was a tape, a Metallica tape, I think, the original garage days, a demo tape which was actually recorded in the garage with Dave Mustaine and Ronald McGovney on bass, the original lineup that was circling around there and that was where I knew Metallica from. So when Kill'em All came out, I thought, yeah, this sounds really produced. You know, it's almost too nice. Yeah, it's not that rough anymore. But and like I said, I was writing a lot of letters with John Gallagher of Raven and Raven toured with Metallica.
Speaker 1:Oh nice.
Speaker 2:In those days in the US and there's always this nice story about a letter I wrote to Metallica in that same period Before Kill'em, all what that was. I wrote them a letter and never got an answer. And then five years ago I think it was four or five years ago I got a call from a guy from Belgium who lives close to me and he said yeah, I said I bought the Kill'em All box set that was. You know, that was a box set that was released five years ago, with the album or with a book, and with such a huge book with all pictures of those days. And he said are you Ron Coon? He said yes, that's me. He said why? Yeah, I think your letter is printed in the, in the book of the box set. I think you're kidding me, you know and you can see it, send me a picture.
Speaker 2:So he sent me a picture and actually the letter I wrote back in 1982 and 83 was printed in the box set five years ago. So I think my letter must have been in a box for 30 years or 35 years, and so they pulled it out and it was in the book.
Speaker 1:That's amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, you should be getting some royalties. That's exactly what I said. If I would have printed something from Lars, then he would have sued me.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, he'd be all over that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and, and now he just took my letter and printed it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:There was even the address was still there, which is the only time when my parents still live.
Speaker 1:So it was. Billions of people even know where you live. This is a safety measure now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so my parents had to build fences around the house because all the people were visiting there.
Speaker 1:You can totally blow this one out, didn't he like he was crazy about his music being free? He was like I don't know where he's putting a letter out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but actually I was, I was a bit, I was honored. Of course I thought it was nice, but I thought, yeah, you know you should have answered me. You know, 35 years ago I was this, I was this fan boy. It was really a fan. But yeah, I know it was cool, you know, to see the letter.
Speaker 2:And it actually made the news here. So the news got around here on radio station and TV stations. All they said, yeah, you know this guy from from, this guy from Holland's. His letter came up again or appeared again after 35 years. And so it actually made it, made the news and actually tried to bring me to the Metallica concert Because they were playing. They were, I think six months later, were playing in Amsterdam and this TV station thought that would be a nice topic, you know, to bring us together again. They tried, they tried to organize it, but it didn't work out.
Speaker 1:So oh, that's too bad.
Speaker 2:It was fine, but it was it was. It was nice to see that my letter popped up again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's awesome. So we're down to your last song, but before I play it, I want you just to share a little bit about some obviously talk a little bit about your album that's coming out, when it's released, where we can go and stalk you and hunt you down. We already know that. We can go buy the box set of kill them all. We have your parents address, so that's a good thing, but share, you know your social media. Don't share your new address, but we already have your old one, so we'll figure it out.
Speaker 2:You want me to tell about it now? Yeah, why not? Yeah, okay, okay, yeah, fine, yeah, love to. Yeah. The album is released under the name run cool and plus Pete St John and Keith is my buddy from LA and the singer on the album is singing on all songs. People may know him from Burning Rain where he plays with Doug Aldrich, who has been playing in White Snake, for instance, for years. Keith also played in plays in, played in Montrose for years and he's playing also in Kingdom come, and so we co wrote the album. We wrote all the songs and the music and recorded it. And Pete is a singer.
Speaker 2:I play rhythm guitar, drums, keyboards, base and for guitar solos. I invited a couple of guitars and I have them here. It's gosh G, once played for Ozzy Osborne. I have Christopher, a mod, who played for our Jeremy Joey conception is a married young guy from Connecticut and he's a Swedish guy, tim we saw him. Or the Dutch guy, talented guy, george Lynch is on there and satchel, who still is on there. The album will be in CD format and it has on the CD it has three bonus tracks that are only available on the CD and it will also stream on Spotify and all streaming media as of this Friday, and people that want to find out about it can go to my website, which is run, cool and rocks, and read and hear all about it.
Speaker 1:I love it and the initial, the initial review.
Speaker 2:There are already some reviews online and the press has responded that I sent. I sent the CD out for the press to pre listen and they all think it's killer.
Speaker 1:I love it, and the release party is that your parents address right. Is that where you start is yeah are you going to have a release party on Friday though?
Speaker 2:No, no, no, no, no. But a release party. I think you should play the music live. Yeah, it's difficult to organize now and with Keith being in America, and so yeah it's, I don't think it brings a lot to do that it would would be nice. It's nice to have, but it doesn't. You know, there's so much work to do on the first days of release that I decided to focus on that.
Speaker 1:Well, it's really cool that you get to collaborate with a whole bunch of artists from all over the world and and that is really because of the world that we live in right now you know, who would have thought that? You know that some of the painful things, but actually what it turned out to to bring even being able to do podcasts like this, and you know, obviously I would love to be out there, you know, one day. That's what I would love to say to whoever you know produces me where I'm like.
Speaker 2:I want to do them live.
Speaker 1:That's right, I want to go to Amsterdam. So if you want me to start getting like all these bands and all these foreign countries, for I can travel the world, yeah, yeah, we, we totally worked remotely. It's amazing.
Speaker 2:You know, with all the internet, people at our own studios, their guitars, recorded every, all their parts in their own studio, keys sang in his own studio. I did in my studio, brought it all together, packaged it and, yeah, you know, it's, it's and it's. It's. The difficult part Well, it's not difficult part, but it's. The thing that you need to be aware of is to keep it fresh, to make sure that it doesn't sound too clinical, because it's all you know, coming from different places, and to make sure it sounds fresh and organic and as if we were in the same room recording it.
Speaker 2:Yeah that should be. That's what I strive for, and I think we did a good job.
Speaker 1:I love it. I can't wait to hear it. Alright, last song and I love this guy so much. I love Aussie. Just so good it's. Have you listened to his podcast? He has a podcast podcast out now.
Speaker 2:It is yet I've I've saved his podcast in my final but I haven't heard it yet. But you'll laugh. It is hilarious.
Speaker 1:It's so random because I think, well, his kids are asking a lot of the questions. That's what makes it funny, because they're just asking him you know, dad, did you really snort ants off the cement? Did you really bite a head off of that? They're asking all these rumor questions and stuff like that. He's so.
Speaker 1:He's like I don't really remember, like I was pretty drunk or high or like he's just so humbly honest, right and to have like such a supportive spouse, like sharing with him, like all the time. Their love is magical. I think they're just like amazing, amazing people and obviously he just puts incredible music together.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he made amazing music and especially in the early years it was a market to moon was my favorite when I was young with Jake Lee on guitar and I was. I was always kind of I love Jake Lee, I was not. I was not that fond of Zach Welk is not my favorite, not my favorite Aussie guitars.
Speaker 1:But what about Randy Rhodes?
Speaker 2:I think he was. He was amazing, but I did not. In those days when he was in the band, I wasn't really aware of that because I was focusing on ACDC. I was playing ACDC all the time, so I wasn't. My awareness of the greatness of Randy Rhodes came much later.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So that's also just like Slayer. I started to appreciate him later, during my let's say my musical journey.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But he, yeah, you know, he's amazing, you know, and it's always, even if you also always, if you try to think of. That's also what I have with Eddie Van Halen, if you, and also what I have with England mom scene, for instance. They made music in in a period where there was no internet, there was no YouTube. Yeah, they all had to invent this.
Speaker 1:I know.
Speaker 2:And you know, even playing what they invented is extremely difficult, let alone invented, and Randy Rose was such a player as well. I know Mix and solos that you know. How can you invent those?
Speaker 1:It's impressive.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the reason I chose this song is that on this particular song on the Scream album, the guitarist is Gus G and as a Greek guy and Gus is always also on my new album and there was this funny story that in the time that Gus joined Osji Osbrunn I think that was 10 years ago, 10, 12 years ago In that period I was also a music journalist.
Speaker 2:I had a radio show on a station here in Holland and I always went out and interviewed musicians. And at that time I already had interviewed Gus a couple of times, because he's on band and his own projects and at some point I had an agreement to interview him at a fair kind of a NAMM kind of a fair, but then in Germany. So I went out and in the days before I had the planned interview with him there were rumors that he was going to join Osji Osbrunn. So I thought, wow, you know, this is a good, you know, this is a perfect story. You know if I can interview him and ask him about Osji? And so we went there, sat down and I said, yeah, gus, tell me about Osji. I said, yeah, I can tell you anything about that. And I thought, shit, you know, yes, he said we can speak about my own band, but I wasn't interested in that because that was, you know, was for me. It was I want. I want to know a thing about Osji.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But I can't tell. I can't tell about him, and so the interview was a bit rusty, but in the end I got some information from him which was really, which was really nice, and from those days I know Gus and we always kept in touch and that's also why I was able to ask him to play on my record and he's playing on two songs there and he's an amazing guitarist, really amazing, and he really deserved this spot on in replacing Zach Wilde one in Osji, because he's an amazing guitarist, yeah that's awesome.
Speaker 1:I love that story. I'm actually going to see Zach Wilde. He does, like Zach Wilde, Sabbath like a tribute band. Oh, yeah, yeah, and I thought that would be kind of interesting to go and see. But they're playing like in a like small bar, so I thought that would be kind of yeah, which I think it's going to be super loud now that you think about it, because it's like aggressive guitar playing in a little tiny pub, right? So I thought that would be kind of cool. Yeah, I loved Osji. Yeah, he's amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he was Well, thank you.
Speaker 1:Ron, so much for joining me today on Music Junkies. I appreciate your stories. I love you sharing your playlist, but before I let you go, I would love for you to leave the listeners some words of wisdom.
Speaker 2:Words of wisdom. Well, I always well, I always loved the Nike.
Speaker 1:Just do it.
Speaker 2:Just do it, you know, and live the dream. And you know this is what I'm doing as well. You know, people have dreams. I've always been a dreamer, you know. I was always like, yeah, you know, when I was young, I want to be him or want to be him, I want to do this and want to do that. But it took me ages before I came into real motion. You know, I really, really decided okay, now stop dreaming, do it, Just do it and go for it. And you know, if I can do it, anyone can do it. It's just a matter of you know, put the effort in it and do it, Go for it. If you want something, go for it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's great words of wisdom and I think everybody should just go and do it Right. So many times we want to be like really, really good at it, or you know, master something, or you know. Like I said earlier time, I don't have the time, but you don't have to be perfect in the beginning. Just if you want to go and do it and you love it. Don't worry about the likes and the follows and the subscribers and all of that shit that people make you think about.
Speaker 1:Like who cares about that stuff? If you love doing what you're doing, then continue to do it. So great words of wisdom. I appreciate you. Thank you again so much Like. Follow, subscribe, go get his album on Friday, right, and we will promote the crap out of it. So I'm excited.
Speaker 2:Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:You're very welcome.