Welcome to Take In A Walk on Buzz Night. Now this week we're going to be celebrating Valentine's Week with a special theme we call Love Songs and Heartbreak Stories. All week long we're revisiting some of our most memorable episodes that explore the romantic side of music, the songs that make us fall in love, the ones that help us heal broken hearts and the stories behind the melodies that have soundtracked our most intimate moments, and what better way to kick off this celebration than with a legend who's written some of the most unforgettable love songs in pop music history, John Oats. As one half of the iconic duo, Hall and Oats, John helped create the soundtrack to countless relationships. Sarah Smile, I can't go for that. You make my dreams come true. Those weren't just hits. They're the songs that people have fallen in love to, dance to at weddings and yes, the most generous broken hearts with for decades. Now in this conversation, we're talking to John Oats about his solo work. John opens up about the personal experiences and emotions behind a song called Reunion off of that solo album, a heartfelt song that's a tribute to his late father that reminds us that Love Songs aren't only about romance but about the connections that shape our lives. So whether you're celebrating Love this Valentine's Week, remembering a romance who just appreciating great songwriting, settle in for this special episode. We're going to take a walk with the incomparable John Oats next. This is an I Heart Podcast. Guaranteed Human. Taking a walk. Well John Oats, it is a terrific honor to have you on this virtual edition of Taking a Walk. We're going to take a walk down memory lane a bit. We're going to talk about your new project Reunion but I'm grateful to have you on. Thanks. Thanks for being here. So Reunion is the new project, the singles out. We want to get into a lot about that project but can you just talk about how the creative process worked for you for this new Reunion project and any differences in the creative project to the way you've done it in the past? Well this particular project I think is in a sense a culmination of my Nashville experience. Moving here, being embraced and participating in a lot of the Americana music communities, not only in terms of musical relationship or friendships and all sorts of things like that. In a way I think this record really kind of crystallizes all those things. There's many, many of my amazing musicians who have become my good friends over the years who we've recorded and toured together with people like Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Baylor Fleck, Jim Lottardale, some great amazing also players like Guthrie Trap, Tom Bukaback. So it's really chock full of this kind of all-star cast, a Sierra Hall on Mandolin, just more recently, Russ Paul, people like that. I could go on and on but it's really and a lot of what I think what makes this record unique too is there's songs on this record that were written a long, long time ago. Some as early as the early 90s and on up to songs that I knew that someday would see the light of day but I didn't have a project that they seemed to fit and finally I had this body of work that seemed to embrace some of these other songs that have just been sitting around in the archives. So really it's I think in a way it's a little bit of a retrospective on my singer's song writer side, on my folk acoustic side, all of which are very important in my background and my musical DNA. And back here you can't quite see it but there's a photo of the great John Prime back there from an album cover and you do an absolutely beautiful, beautiful rendition of the song Long Monday. Congratulations on that. Tell me about what John Prime that song and his music means to you. Well I think there's probably a fact hidden unknown fact that John was doing if not his first album, one of his first albums at Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Studios in New York City in the early 70s with the producer Arif Martin. At the exact same time that Darryl and I were doing our first albums in the same studio with the same producer. So there's a lot of synergy there in terms of we'd be passing each other in hallways as him going to his session or coming out and vice versa. So even though I wasn't super close with John in the later years we did play together once or twice just casually and I've just been a huge fan, one of the great American songwriters. And when I was asked to celebrate his birthday at the Reimann Auditorium in Nashville a few months ago they asked me if I would participate and I said of course and I picked Long Monday and then I thought about it and I thought well here's a challenge because I have a great respect for songwriters so I wouldn't want to mess with the beauty of his lyrics and his melody for that matter. So I thought well the only way I can make this my own is in terms of the arrangement. So I dug into the arrangement and I tried to make the arrangement a little bit more personal and a little bit more comfortable for me. And then when I played it live on stage everyone seemed to really like it. Then I said well I guess I should record it so I did and of course I included it on the album. It really is beautiful. Thanks. Yeah. Tell me about collaborating with the AJ Croci. Well it's a perfect segred because I met AJ Croci at that exact John Bryan event at the Reimann Auditorium. We were put into the same we were assigned the same dressing room. Of course I knew I knew of him but I had never we had never met and we hit it off immediately. He's just got a very very he's a really warm engaging guy and I could tell from immediately that we there was there was something going on. We had a real you know it was very compatible and I could just I sense that we could do something together. I didn't know what that was going to be. But we did talk about you know getting together to write and when we did I had this idea for reunion. I had the the concept I had the part of the chorus and I had a key line. The lights at the party burned bright but I'm leaving early tonight and to me that that kind of symbolizes the the the spirit of the whole song. We talked about it. I told him about my hundred year old father who gave me the inspiration for this song. We start discussing you know what it's like to really find the essence of yourself and of course he related I think on a lot of ways due to the fact that his father was such a famous and well known songwriter and he was in the midst of doing a tour of Croci sings Croci. There was a lot going on that really we were both able to relate to the idea of the song in our own personal way and it really it was beautiful. It flowed really quickly. I think we wrote the song in a few hours. Had you encountered his father through your career? No not personally no but of course I was a fan. What a legacy right my god. I think really in a way it's sad but many times people's legacy is more appreciated after they pass away and it feels like that was the case with his father. Well you know I think he was also appreciated you know in his own time. I though those you know he had big hits he had big hits with a very kind of a acoustic folk kind of recording style and which was unusual for the time which was great. It made him stand out for sure. So I'll put you on the spot here and ask you maybe five quintessential albums that have really mattered to you and had an influence on you. Oh I don't know where to begin. Sure. I would say you know going back the first long playing album LP that I ever heard other than early rock and roll single 45s was Ray Charles. Ray Charles greatest hits and I did not have a long playing record player as well. My hat only had a little 45 record record player and this was probably late 50s and I remember friend of mine's parents had a console record player and they had this Ray Charles record and I just absorbed it. You know it had what I say and it had you know all some of his early classics and it was just it just grabbed me immediately. So I would definitely say Ray Charles was a huge influence on me. And then you know when the folk movement either folk revival hit in the early 60s I was exposed to music that I had never heard from, never heard before. A roots music that was being rediscovered and spread around the college campuses in the early 60s. So I would say Dave Van Runk was a big influence on me because I loved his voice. It was so gritty and he had this powerful personality. Also the first Doc Watson record on Vanguard was a real touchstone for me. Because it was the first time I heard virtuosic acoustic guitar playing. So I absorbed that record and I tried to learn as you know I eventually over the years I learned all the songs on the record. But you know that was a challenge and a real inspiration for me. And then you know there's so many more the temptations. They had a particularly live album that was incredible that they recorded at a club somewhere which was amazing. And of course the classic James Brown live at the Apollo which was probably the most kinetic and exciting recording that I'd ever heard. The tempo's were all jacked up. It was just James Brown at his best at the Apollo theater. And then moving on later on in the 60s you know the band. The band was a big influence on me. And I just thought it was music that I'd never heard before. It was a style of music but I understood the roots of it. And I understood where the influences were but their unique take on it and their unique us. Well not only the songwriting but their playing and singing was so unique. There was no one had ever sounded like them. So that was highly influential to me. And then the record that I consider the classic of all time is blue by Joan and Mitchell. I think that's the perfect album. I think every and on every level there's nothing I've never heard anything better. Our singing, our playing, the production, the engineering, the songs themselves, even down to the album cover. It's the perfect combination of sensitivity, sensibility, music, lyrics, creativity, all wrapped into one perfect album. Brilliant list. Brilliant list. How did you feel watching Joni at that Newport folk festival event? Wasn't it beautiful? You mean most recently? Yes. Yeah well, congrats to her, Kudos to her. I'm really, you know, I'm just glad that she left her house and decided to make that step. A very good friend of mine who was my guitar tech during the 80s and also who's currently the guitar tech for the edge and you too, he was asked to go to her house and help her with her acoustic guitars and help her kind of prepare for that show. So he gave me a lot of inside scoop on what she was like and the, you know, I'm sure that she was concerned and sure she had a lot of interpretation about what she was going to do and how she was going to do it. As you age, you have certain limitations to your skill set, whether that be vocally or instrumentally. And I think, you know, she was concerned and, but she had an amazing group of people to support her. And it was great to see her honored and appreciated by a newer generation. Yeah, it was a magical moment for sure. Speaking of magical moments, first concert that you experienced as a fan, what was it? It was when I was four years old or it was Bill Helly in the comments. I saw them play at Willow Grove amusement park in Pennsylvania in a band show. And I had just, my family had just moved us from New York City to Pennsylvania and it was one of my first memories in Pennsylvania to go to the amusement park and hear this band. I had never heard live music before. Well, of course, I was four years old, four, five, maybe four and a half. And I remember running down to the band show, down to the stage. And the stage was probably only two feet high. So I was even as a little kid, I was able to stand there. And I remember standing right in front of the upright bass player. And then when at a certain point in the show, which was kind of a rock ability tradition, which of course, I didn't know at the time, you know, he put it on its side and wrote it like a horse while he was playing. And of course, to a four year old, that was big. That was the epa G of a show business there, right there. Did that cement you for life that you'd be a musician? I was already a musician, believe it or not. I have recordings of me at four years old singing songs that we did at the Coney Island amusement park in the little booth, in the record booth, where you'd put a coin in and you'd go into sing. So for some reason, I just had this ability to sing in my parents. My mother in particular was, you know, she really pushed me and supported me about that. So do those recordings still exist? Mm-hmm. I've got them. Yep. Wow. That's amazing. First one. Of course. The first one was here comes Peter Cottontail when I was about three or four. And then the second one was a few years later, it was all shook up by Elvis. And then I went to the momentous. Who were some of the mentors in your career that have really mattered to you? Well, a few. I had an English teacher in seventh grade who gave us an assignment to write a poem. And it was at the time of the Cuban Missile Crosse. And I was kind of aware of the early days of the protest song movement with Phil Oaks, people like that Bob Dylan Phil Oaks. So I wrote this poem about the Cuban Missile Crosse. And the teacher knew that I played guitar and said, you know, you should put this to music. And I never thought of the idea that I could write a song. And that was kind of an incentive to try it. So I would have to count that English teacher as an early mentor. But my real mentor was a guy named Jerry Ricks, who I met in Philadelphia in 1967. He or 66, I can't describe 66. I had my first year of college. I was, I needed a job. I needed a part-time job. Of course, I'm too lazy to work. So I went to a place called Esther Halpern's Folk Music School in Philadelphia. And I applied for a job as a guitar teacher. And she auditioned me and I played her a few things. And she said, okay, you'll be good to teach like the beginners in the intermediates. And I said, okay, fine. I just needed a job. The guy who was teaching the advanced lessons was a guy named Jerry Ricks. And he was unbelievable. And he also had been involved with helping a guy named Dick Waterman. Dick Waterman was the manager to a lot of the early bluesmen, people like Sunhouse, Sunny Terry Browning McGee, Robert Pete Williams, Mississippi John Her, Doc Watson, people like that. But kind of helping them because when a lot of these performers, rural performers came to the big cities and were performing for the first time at these folk festivals and things, they had no clue on what to do. They had no money. They couldn't stay in a hotel. So they would stay at Jerry's house because Jerry lived right across the street from Dick Waterman. And a little fun fact sidebar, Bonnie Rate was Dick Waterman's girlfriend. So if anyone ever wonders why Bonnie Rate is so good and why she's so authentic, it's because she sat in a living room with some of these great authentic performers and learned directly from them. But anyway, and actually one day Bonnie and I had to drag Robert Pete Williams out of a bar in South Philly and bring him back because no one could find him. These guys didn't know it. They did tend to like to drink. But anyway, Jerry became my initially when I realized how good he was. I asked him if he could teach me some things. So I became his guitar student and eventually we played together. In fact, Jerry is playing Jerry Ricks is playing on the first two hole in oats albums with me on acoustic guitar on some of their songs. And interestingly enough, here's another sidebar. After Mississippi John Hurt died, he is guitar that he played at Newport, Folk Festival in 63 was given to Jerry. And when I asked Jerry to come to New York in the early 70s and play on the hole in oats albums, he asked me, he said, do you want me to bring Mississippi John's guitar so you can play it? And I said, absolutely. So the guitar I'm playing on the first two hole in oats albums is Mississippi John Hurt's acoustic guitar, which I now own by the way. Wow. I know. It's crazy. And it's on display at the Phoenix Music Lens Museum as we speak. And I'm playing there as well in a week or so. But so Jerry was incredible and not only, you know, he became a good friend, a teacher, a mentor. And I really learned so much from him, not only about actually how to play some of these songs and how to authentically finger the finger picking and the styles, but also just some basic learning about musicianship and listening. And a more sophisticated way of, he made me a more sophisticated musician in a way. So I would say they're my real mentors. We'll be right back with more of the Take in a Walk Podcast. Welcome back to the Take in a Walk Podcast. Well throughout your career, you've always had an eye on, you know, rising talent and how to help them and work with them. We had one of those talents on this podcast named Honoli, who was a delightful person for us to encounter and very talented. Tell us about how that collaboration came about with Honoli. Well, she's my niece. All right. She's, yes, she's my wife's brother's daughter. And she was always a very, you know, I watched her grow up from the time she was a baby. And she's always very outgoing. She had always had a real big personality. And she, she began to sing. And when I first heard her sing, I knew that she could really sing. And I remember she came to Nashville quite a while ago when she was just that maybe in high school or just in college. And she really wanted to come to Nashville and she said she wanted to make it and all the stuff. And I remember when we went to a restaurant with her parents and we were sitting there. And I said to her, look, I said, you see all these waitresses? They're all trying to do exactly what you're doing to do. I said, so if you're going to come here, you better be prepared because the bar is set very high. And it is not easy. And I thought maybe she would get scared off or maybe just lose the vibe. But she came and she worked her butt off. She went down on lower Broadway. She sang in the bars. She did all the cover songs. She really, really worked hard. I didn't help her very much to be honest with you. But I did help her when she needed it. And we wrote a song together. I put her with the great Nathan Chapman who produced Taylor Swift. And she, Nathan, myself and Analy, we wrote a song together. And I think that was the first time she got a chance to write with professional song writers. And we wrote a really cool song called, Hey, There Walls, which I believe she recorded. So I mean, I didn't, you know, I just, I've always there for her, but didn't really want to be, you know, like kind of pushy and it was really her career. And I just, I'm so proud of her for really doing it herself and really finding her way. She's making some new music now out in California. She's found some producers who she's working with. And she runs things by me. I give her my two cents, but she knows what she's doing and she's amazing. It's a good soul. Good tell. Yeah, good tell. Tell me about the Nashville community. You've been there a while and it is a unique and I think special community. Talk about what it means being part of that community and the way that you are. Well, in the 90s, so when Darryl and I weren't doing very much, I started going to Nashville and meeting some people. I did a few demo sessions and things like that. And immediately the first thing that struck me was the, the, the, the caliber and quality of the, of the players, the musicians. I realized that they were really, really good. And you know, I had spent my whole, basically my whole, I mean, I was in bands and playing playing by myself prior to meeting Darryl. But once Darryl and I started, you know, it was all hauling oats all the time, 24, seven for, you know, for 15, 20 years, whatever. So I was used to playing with a certain, in a certain style, with a certain band, with a certain ensemble. So all of a sudden I was playing with different people and different settings and I was really impressed. And I also realized that, that I couldn't kind of, kind of skate and, and kind of, I couldn't make it on my reputation. I really had to up my game. So to be honest with you, I started practicing really hard in the, you know, in the late 90s or really 2000s. I realized that I needed to really up my game and if I wanted to be in that caliber and player. So it's really been an incredible incentive to me to get better and to really realize my full potential. You know, there's a couple of historic moments in your career that I wanted to get your memory of, live aid and the, we are the world sessions, those two in particular. Any reflections you could share with us about those two historic events? Not only do you have enough time, but okay. Well, we were, you want to start with live aid. I guess we can start there. Yeah. Well, the, you know, the American version was going to be in Philadelphia. Of course, Darryl and I being from Philadelphia and being, of course, at almost, you know, at the top of our, our commercial, you know, we were at the top of the pop pyramid at the time. So we were, we were, we were asked to basically close the show and we wanted to do something really special and something, you know, above and beyond. We had just played the Apollo theater with Eddie Kendrick and David Ruffin who, with the lead singers and the temptations and we did a, temptations, you know, kind of retrospective of, of songs of medley. And it was great. So we thought, well, why not bring Eddie and David and we'll do some temptation songs in addition to our own set, of course. And then Mick Chagger reached out and he was doing a solo album at the time and he didn't have a band. So he asked if we, if our band would backing. So of course, you know, we said, yeah, of course. And I remember one, you know, one anecdote, it's really amazing to me is we were rehearsing at SIR, which was studio instrument rentals in New York City. So, you know, where they have a sound stage and you could rehearse and all that. And we had rehearsed the songs that Mick wanted to play. And so we knew the songs we had learned them. And then Mick was going to come in and just go over them with us. And I thought, you know, well, he'll just come in and, you know, we'll go through the motions and we'll play the songs and he'll say yes or no or change whatever. But what I didn't expect was for him to literally jump on stage, grab the mic and count the song off and go into his full Mick Chagger routine in rehearsal with nobody in the room except us. I mean, I'm talking about the full thing, the chicken wings, you know, the jumping around, doing, he did, he did it as if he was playing, you know, Madison Square Garden. It was unbelievable. And, you know, and it was incredible and it was exciting. And I immediately said, okay, well, this is why this guy is who he is. And then, of course, he didn't tell us. We didn't know that he was going to bring a team of turner out on stage. That was a surprise. And literally, he didn't, we didn't know. And when he brought her out on stage and then, of course, he ripped her leather skirt off, which was kind of cool too. I guess they had it all planned. But, you know, but it just made it so exciting because it was like, it was happening all, you know, for the first time. So that was that, that was an amazing night. And I believe that was the biggest rock concert to ever be a cymbal cast around the world, you know, at the time. And then, you know, on We Are the World, that was scheduled to be done after the American Music Awards and back in those days, you know, there was really only the American Music Awards in the Grammys. So everybody who was anybody in pop was pretty much at that show. And they, they carted us all over to the studio and put us, you know, those things. And there I was standing next to Bob Dylan and Rachel Arles to my heroes. So I thought, hey, this is pretty good, pretty good spot to be. And yeah, and then I went around and got everyone to sign my manuscript, my music, the music, the sheet, the sheet music, which they handed us. I got everyone to sign it and I have that frame now. So it's a, it's definitely one of my prize positions. Love it. How do you think the musical hall notes will be viewed for years to come? I think, I think it will be, I think it's pretty timeless. So some of those songs are, have, that already, you know, with stood the test of generations. So I don't see that they're going to go away. Great songs endure. And I'm very proud and happy to know that I was part of something that will endure and, you know, which is, it's fabulous. And, you know, it's a, it's a blessing. It's something that people, you know, people would, you know, most musicians and songwriters would hope that they would have one much less than, you know, multiple songs that fit that description. So I'm, I'm proud of it. I mean, at the same time, I feel like I, I, I think those songs should be respected and heard in the context of, of the records that were made in the 70s and 80s. And I really don't, I feel like I've moved beyond it now. I'd rather hear those songs the way they should sound as opposed to kind of, you know, a live reproduction of them at this point in my life. I've not moved away from that. You moved to Colorado to just sort of change the pace of your life a bit and sort of go into a different mode. And as part of that move, I think you did encounter the great Hunter Thompson while you were out there. Can you share anything about an experience with Hunter? Many, many, some of, some of which I can't tell you. But, well, you know, I had been going to Colorado since the late 60s when I was in college. And I finally, I finally moved there in the late 80s, nearly 90s. I met my future wife and we were looking for a place to live. She, she found a little piece of land in place called Woody Creek outside of Aspen, Colorado. And it was like a little, a little farm, a little ranch. And I remember the first time we went to see it with the real estate agent. We're standing there on this kind of, there was only a horse barn and a little log cabin. And we're standing there and all of a sudden we heard, you know, boom, boom. And then we heard shotgun pellets on the metal roof of this little barn like, you know, and I was like, whoa, what's that? And he goes and then real estate agent was like, oh, that's your neighbor. That's that's Hunter. That's your neighbor. And I said, well, is this something we should be concerned about? And he said, no, no, he's, he's fine. He's fine. He's just sending a warning shot, you know. So I thought to myself, well, this is either really good or really terrible. As it turned out, it was really good because he slept during the day and worked at night. I did, I worked during the day and slept at night. So that worked out pretty well. The interesting thing that I noticed immediately in the little log cabin, there was the big, there was a big red convertible, which was that landshark that he used in fear and loathing his, his car because no one had been on the property for years. So he, even though he didn't own the property, he just put his car in the cabin and put a padlock on the door. And I said, what are we going to do with this guy's car? Because we wanted to turn the cabin into a little apartment where we could live while we built the rest of our house. So I would go and knock on his door and he never answered. Then I'd go again, I didn't even know because I, because we wanted to, you know, we wanted to have the carpenters come in and start rebuilding this cabin. So the keys were in it, I jumped, started it, I backed it out, I drove it up on his lawn, I put it directly in front of his door and I just left it there. And I knew him for 25 years and he never said a word to me about it. I guess he just thought the car just appeared one day, you know. So we went to his funeral that Johnny Depp organized and it was amazing. We played it as funeral with Lyle Loved it and Johnny Depp and it was just absolutely amazing. He was an amazing guy and one of the great, you know, a classic journalist, you know, who invented a style of journalism really, you know, he loved being Hunter Thompson. He loved the image of himself. And I think what happened when he broke his hip and his leg and he couldn't really be that guy anymore. I don't think that's when he decided to pack it all in. But he, we used to go up there and watch Monday night football with the sheriff and we, well, it's just kind of crazy. Let's come back to reunion here. I want to get your take on a couple of the specific songs here. We've already touched on Long Monday and reunion. I want to talk about Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee who you mentioned earlier in the conversation. So talk about them and that song. That song was written during the pandemic when I was out in Colorado, I'm spending more time in Colorado during the pandemic just to get out of the city, breathe some fresh air and all that. And I ran into a guy who was a neighbor who I knew for years and years, but we never did anything together. He, his guy named Joe Henry who's written lyrics. He's an author. He's written books and we were just shooting the breeze and he said, you know, we should write a song on Wednesday. And I said, yeah, we should. And so he came up to my little cabin and the cabin where that car was, by the way. And we, we'd start talking about, you know, ideas for songs. And he told me he related this story about Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee, how as time went on in their career, they were together for over 40 years. They began to really dislike each other and they didn't want to play together anymore. So obviously there was something going on that resonated with me. And, but he said that the interesting part was that one of them lost this ability to see and the other one lost his ability to walk. And it brought them together in a way. And they needed each other to get on stage. And when I thought about it, I said, well, you know, we could write about them, specifically or we could use their story and their experience as a metaphor for kindness and lending a helping hand and helping your fellow man, so to speak. I thought that was a more broad subject. So in the end, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee became more of a metaphor for the meaning of the song. How about the song All I Am that you co-wrote with Adam Ezra? Yeah, Adam's great. He and I just did a song that we just played together in New York just a couple weeks ago. He's great. He's from the Boston area, a really good soul, talented guy. And we played, we've done shows together over the years. We've written a few songs together and All I Am is probably my favorite of the ones we've written. It's just a song. He came to Nashville. We sat down and we wrote it. It was, it just worked. And I love that song. We played all the time. And how about the song that this field is mine, which is just wonderful to talk about that one? Thank you. That song was supposed to be included on the Arkansas album, which came out in 2018. But it just didn't, there was something about it that I didn't think it was right from that album. So I held it. But I knew that I was going to release it someday. That song was inspired by my wife's family, who's there. They own a farm in southern Illinois. And they're very, very passionate about keeping the farm as the as the surrounding area gets developed by suburbs and housing developments. And when I know the passion that they have for their land because it's a, you know, it's been in their farm family for generations. So I thought about it and I thought about what, what that really means. I thought about what owning a piece of land. You really, really own it or you're just the caretaker for a while, you know. And so that was the impetus for it. And I ran the idea by Sam Bush and the great Jeff Black, who's an incredible Nashville songwriter. And we wanted to try to write something together. So the three of us got together and we wrote that song together. Yeah, so that was, that was, that was really great to be able to, I had never written anything with Sam. And it was first time. And I think we did pretty good. Did awesome. In closing, you've always explored diverse influences in your career and you continue to do that. Are there some influences that you have not explored that you'd still like to explore? I wouldn't say there's any particular influence like style. I, but I still have a lot of entry. You know, I, I just wrote a song with a young artist named Devin Gilfilling, who's fantastic. He's an R&B singer from Philadelphia. And I went to saw him live and he's great. And I introduced myself and we hit it off and wrote a song. It sounds like a vintage soul song. And so I'm not going to be stuck in any particular style. I'm just going to, you know, do whatever feels right at the time. That's a song that I want to release this coming fall. And it's a really cool song. So, and then, you know, I just recently I was on the Joe Bonamassa Blues cruise. And I got a chance to sit in with a band called Robert John in the wreck. They're a California based rock band and they're really, really good. And I really liked them and got together and wrote a song just a few days ago with them. And Dave Cobb is producing them. Hopefully it'll make it on to the album. And so, you know, I'm just, I'm just open to interesting ideas. Congratulations on a reunion. I'm so grateful that you took the time to be on Take a Walk. You've been a fan forever. And thank you for the music that you continue to give us, John. Thanks. It was a good interview. I like talking about that stuff. So thanks. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Take a Walk podcast. Share this and other episodes with your friends and follow us. So you never miss an episode. Take a walk is available on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts and wherever you get your podcasts.
