S1-E1 - Boyd Headley | Drummer

Go Under the Musical Influence of Boyd Headley answering 9 Questions about his Musical Self.

It All Started at 5 with a Toy Drum Set in the Northern Neck, Richmond County to Virginia Beach, Virginia and Many Places InBetween!

It was Not long before Boyd was in a Band. Boyd has Played Everything from Gospel to Southern Rock, Jazz to R&B & Funk.

Do you Know the Avengers? (Not like This!) Are You in Total Control? (No, Not like that!) Do you have an X Lover? (Not what you are thinking!)

How about These Drummers? Buddy Rich? Jean Cooper? Louie Bellson? Some of Boyd's Drumming Heroes!

What about Singer, Song Writers? The Eagles? Willie Nelson? Leonard Cohen?

Have you Heard a Quadraphonic 8 track Stereo Car Stereo?

Have You Ever Invented or Made an Musical Instrument? Boyd Has with his Grandfather.

Music Discussed from Muddy Waters,  The Rolling Stones, Miami Sound Machine to Molly Hatchet, Lynyrd Skynyrd and More!

Find Out More About the Band that Intro's & Outro's the Show!
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Transcript

[00:01:04.530] - DJJonniBravo
Hello.
I'm Jonni Bravo.
Today. You're going under the musical influence of today's guest Boyd Hadley on Under the Influence with DJJonniBravo. Boyd and I work together. Boyd played drums in a band, and we're going to find all about his musical self right now.

[00:01:21.570] - Boyd Headley
John, When I was around four or five years old, I received a toy drum set because I beat on everything in the house. My parents figured that'd be a way to have an outlet. We have company over, and I pull out the drum set and start to entertain everyone. My mother would put the drum set back in my bedroom. I drag it back out, back and forth. So flash forward. A few years, I joined the school band. I was about 6th grade, I guess. I was able to start actually playing a drum set.

[00:01:45.690] - Boyd Headley
And I really learned to play the drum kit in school. A few years later, I discovered that my neighbors had a band and no drummer. I got up the nerve to walk over one day, and I was like, hey, you guys have a band, but Where's your drummer? Before, they really said anything. And I'm not remembering everything they said there. Well, I'm a drummer. And suddenly, I was in a band, and that started 20 years or so of a musical career, playing all over. Playing everything from gospel to Southern rock to Jazz to RB funk.

[00:02:17.850] - Boyd Headley
That was my life for just a really long time.

[00:02:20.190] - DJJonniBravo
So, Boyd, beating on everything in the house back and forth. You're a drummer now you're in a band. And the band's name is The Avengers. Is that right?

[00:02:30.150] - Boyd Headley
A few iterations. Actually, the band that I'm describing right now turned into a band called The
Avengers. Many years ago probably has a little more significance in the entertainment industry. But that was one of the first bands that I actually played in was called Avengers. And I had just a number of bands, and some of them were similar musicians that were just iterations of that same band.

[00:02:51.570] - DJJonniBravo
So what were some of the other names of the bands that you had Besides The Avengers?

[00:02:55.710] - DJJonniBravo
Do you remember any of the other names of the bands?

[00:02:57.690] - Boyd Headley
Well, I mean, there were a few really. There was kind of an RnB band I played in called Total Control. There was a band that I really played and did you more traveling and play with that was called X Lover. It was fronted by a guitarist named Mike Latham. I'm sure I could pull out some more names. There were a few. Some of those are really like jazz ensembles and trios and things like that, depending on what kind of music, that I was playing at the time.

[00:03:24.390] - DJJonniBravo
And that's just a wide range of music, from Southern Rock to Jazz to RnB to Funk to Gospel. You're just playing everything in the kitchen sink. It's no wonder that you were beating on everything in the house. Just to get the rhythm for all of those bands.

[00:03:39.090] - Boyd Headley
Well, I just had to let it out. And that's true. The gospel. Some of my schoolmates had a gospel band. Again, this seems to be a common problem. They didn't have a drummer. So they approached me one day and said, hey, we want you to play in our band, our gospel band. Now, I'll tell you one little thing about that group was called The Bells of Joy. Really a great group of musicians and singers growing up in the country in Virginia. That was the first band I played in where we actually we were going out to black churches.

[00:04:06.750] - Boyd Headley
I was the only white member of the band. We really played. We had a really great band, but it was always an experience. Whenever we went to a new Church, especially an old Southern Baptist Church, we took a little getting used to for them.

[00:04:22.170] - DJJonniBravo
You grew up in Virginia.

[00:04:23.070] - DJJonniBravo
What part of Virginia did you grow up in?

[00:04:24.810] - DJJonniBravo
You were out in the sticks.

[00:04:25.590] - DJJonniBravo
But you weren't really out in the sticks.

[00:04:26.670] - DJJonniBravo
Is that right?

[00:04:27.330] - Boyd Headley
I thought we were in the sticks. Northern Neck, Richmond County, miles from anywhere. I'll paint you a picture. When I was waiting for the school bus to come in the mornings, I was looking across the cow pasture, and it was nothing for a cow to jump the fence. So we were in the country just traveling around with these bands.

[00:04:45.690] - DJJonniBravo
And a lot of people don't realize that when you're playing a band like this. Now, it's not that big of a deal. But back then, all this stuff going on regionally with the sounds. Where nowadays you're just getting the band and you're playing all kinds of stuff. They really don't have a label. But back where you were.

[00:05:00.730] - DJJonniBravo
In the area that you grew up. It was more about, like, this is the area that we're coming from. So, for example, like REM coming out of Athens, Georgia, that's, like a big Southern area, kind of close to Atlanta. But people don't realize the kind of regionality that music has, right?

[00:05:16.750] - Boyd Headley
Well, that's true. Most of my early playing just venues that were Southern rock. It definitely makes a difference what you're playing depending on where you are. You played a lot of Southern rock. We had played a lot of, like, Clapton, things like that. And people really appreciate that because you can play a little bit of country, and they love that. We're playing The Eagles. We're playing Lynyrd Skynyrd. You don't want to veer too far into pop when you have an audience that really loves their Southern rock.

[00:05:42.010] - DJJonniBravo
While we're on the subject of that, let's go into music discoveries. When did you first discover music?

[00:05:48.070] - Boyd Headley
Basically, every morning waiting for the school bus to come, we had the radio on. Now, My parents were big country music fans. So growing up, I listened to a lot of country music. I was not a big fan, all the time. At least not then. It really wasn't until later that I started to gain an appreciation for just great songwriters. People like Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash. Those guys are really incredible songwriters, incredible singers. The older I got, the more I appreciated the song and the storytelling.

[00:06:17.830] - Boyd Headley
Put those three up, along with someone like Leonard Cohen, who is completely different. You've got some really great songwriters and just songs that stand the test of time. Yeah.

[00:06:26.050] - DJJonniBravo
We talked a little bit about this, how big of an influence country music had on both of our lives. I always say that I hate not hate country, but something that I would not play DJing and or classical. And you are kind of in the same boat with that. Not that you really hated country. But you didn't realize that you liked this country as much as you did the influence of country.

[00:06:43.990] - Boyd Headley
And that really goes back to how music developed probably over the last 120 years. I grew to really like a lot of Blues and a lot of country. And I started to realize that these music influences, influence the bands that I was listening to growing up. It wasn't just a country, just like an isolated kind of a genre. And it didn't have influence. Country, Blues influence Country, Country influenced Blues. All of that created Jazz and Blues and the kinds of Country music that we probably grew up listening to.

[00:07:16.150] - Boyd Headley
But there were roots that were really deep in all of those styles of music. And when you really look at it, you realize it's all the same melting pot. Look at the Rolling Stones and they idolized and influenced by acts like Muddy Waters. The Blues guys, love that stuff. But now if you talk to somebody about the Rolling Stones, they probably really don't remember or had no idea that some of their biggest influences were really the great Blues players in the 40s and 50s and 60s into the 70s.

[00:07:41.230] - DJJonniBravo
Yeah.

[00:07:41.410] - DJJonniBravo
You really see those musical influences with the Rolling Stones and other bands from the UK, even the Beatles, growing up on a lot of those Blues singers and songwriters as well. And then country with that PBS special on country, you look at the June Carter Cash, Carter sisters. That father would go out and pay and get the royalties on songs throughout Virginia. You don't really think about the Blues aspect moving into the Jazz aspect with the Country aspect. A lot of people don't think about that. You're playing all of those beating the drums and setting the tone.

[00:08:12.790] - DJJonniBravo
That's basically one of the instruments that they talk about a lot in that country music special was the drums.

[00:08:18.610] - Boyd Headley
Regardless of the genre of music, drums. And you really want to go back the further you go back, the more you're going to hear a drum beating a rhythm. Because the rhythm of the drum is really your heartbeat. That's one of the things that either is great about drummers or sometimes other musicians say, don't play so fast. The more energy you get. Sometimes the more excitement you get. And then you have to be able to contain that. But at the same time, drums really are the heartbeat of a song and a band.

[00:08:45.550] - DJJonniBravo
There's a really good documentary The Beat Goes On or something like that. But they talk about Charlie and some of the other drummers. And you really don't have the appreciation for the drummer because they're the ones in the back. They're sitting in the back of the house and you're like, what's the big deal? Who cares? But they really are keeping the rhythm. And they really are thinking about the timing. They really are thinking about the band. With Charlie and the Rolling Stones. I mean, he's just back there doing his thing sometimes not even cracking a smile.

[00:09:12.010] - DJJonniBravo
And sometimes he was, but he was just on it. I know that's one of the drummers that you idolize, is there any other drummers out there? I mean, this is a side question that you really idolized back in the day or thought about or catch your style from?

[00:09:24.850] - Boyd Headley
Well, when you mentioned Charlie, what he always said, he was a Jazz drummer. You'd never know that by just listening to a Rolling Stone song. But he was a Jazz drumer. And that's how he sort of approached the instrument. I mean, there have been so many. But one of the things I really became interested in growing up and playing music was the roots of that instrument. But I would tell you in Jazz, pre Rock and Roll, there were really three drummers drummers that were considered the cream of the crop, the best drummers in the world.

[00:09:51.610] - Boyd Headley
And those were Buddy Rich. Everybody knows about Buddy Rich being a really flamboyant drummer. Jean Cooper, probably everybody remembers or they know the song Sings, Sings, Sings.

[00:10:00.610] - Boyd Headley
That's something he was really known for is just being very flamboyant and a entertainer. Louie Bellson, Louie Bellson was one of the best drummers that just ever lived. He also did something really interesting. When he was about 14 years old, he drew a picture of and then later invented and pioneered the double bass drum technique. Just the whole idea of having two bass drums, more range in the instrument. And that gave birth really to heavy metal. He was the drummer that started that. And every drummer that played any kind of Thrash Metal, they owe Louie Bellson and a lot to their style.

[00:10:32.830] - Boyd Headley
He was a great drummer. He was also very melodic. When he played drums, he played music. He didn't just beat on the drums. I'll tell you just one story about him. I actually got to meet him and watch him play a jazz festival in Pennsylvania. I was probably about maybe a foot behind him on the other side of the curtain from where he was playing. I watched everything he did. It was really a clinic, especially when he got to his drum solo. When he finished, of course, he got his applause.

[00:11:00.010] - Boyd Headley
He came out as a fan and he was just a musical hero. We had actually musicians backstage watching him play, and I just kind of grabbed him and gave him a hug and said, look, we love you. You're an idol. He was just a really good guy. He was an incredible musician. He used to actually go out to schools and colleges all around the country, do clinics and really tried to pass along his style. But also just the love of music and how to make drums a melodic instrument.

[00:11:26.890] - DJJonniBravo
Man, to meet your idol, playing the instrument that you play. Being just sometimes just a fly on the wall, way up in the stands. But you're sitting there backstage, hanging out with him, got a chance to give him a hug and all that. What a super, super story about your musical influences. Being able to just have that snapshot. And that story that you'll always be able to tell with your idol.

[00:11:47.950] - Boyd Headley
Right place, right time.

[00:11:48.550] - DJJonniBravo
What was your first song that you remember first song you remember?

[00:11:52.570] - Boyd Headley
When I think about listening to music, maybe. I think the earliest song I recall was Mama Told Me Not to Come, which was a band called Three Dog Night. Of course, years after listening to that song, I became a fan of the band. As I'm thinking about it, I think it might also be Hotel California by the Eagles. I had an aunt that just passed recently. She had Hotel California. She had Tom Jones albums.

[00:12:15.670] - Boyd Headley
She was a pretty hip aunt. Her musical influences. One of those two songs was, I just have a memory of listening to both of them. I'm not sure which was first.

[00:12:24.310] - DJJonniBravo
It's funny that you mentioned Hotel California. That's like one of my daughter's favorite songs. I don't know if you've seen the Shang-Chi movie. I won't ruin it for you. But there's a really funny thing about Hotel California in the Shang-Chi that you have to look for when you go to watch that movie. Those guys, man, the Eagles really had it together.

[00:12:41.110] - Boyd Headley
They are really great songwriters. All of those songs that they had out like that album, Hotel
California. The music was great, but just listen to the lyrics. Those songs were really deep. They had a lot of meanings, and I think that's why they're still being played today.

[00:12:56.290] - DJJonniBravo
You're absolutely right in that. They still are being played today. Probably just as popular as they were. I mean, they're still touring. I believe a lot of their members have passed on and gone to other bands. Still playing music. So that really speaks to the history of the Eagles and their songwriting, their harmonies. They had really great harmonies that they would always come with on their records as well.

[00:13:18.670] - Boyd Headley
Yeah, they were a complete band. They really were.

[00:13:22.870] - DJJonniBravo
All right, We're going to take a pause here for a second and we'll be right back. So hang on. Under the influence. We are back. I'm Jonni Bravo. You're going under the musical influence of today's. Guest Boyd Headley on Under the Influence with DJJonniBravo. We're going to talk about that long distance dedication, Boyd.

[00:14:06.750] - Boyd Headley
So we're talking about the Eagles. I'll just say usually I was on the play this song side of the
dedication. So we always had people say, play whatever the song is. One of my favorite to play for people was Desperado. Talking about the Eagles, and I put the Eagles up as some of the best songwriters of our time, really. If I had to make a dedication, I would say also, Willie Nelson Always on my Mind. That guy can just really write a song. All of those songs.

[00:14:30.630] - Boyd Headley
I really love songs about imperfect people just trying to do their best and make their way through. So there are a lot of songs like that. But Desperado really stands out. I think also because it was a song that we did play a lot. It was a cover. It was a song that we didn't get a lot of requests for. There was a lot of meaning behind that song.

[00:14:47.250] - DJJonniBravo
Desperado, That's one song that was covered and recovered by a lot of bands. A lot of singers
covered that song. Such a great song. Willie Nelson, we're talking about that documentary that we were talking about earlier with the Country music. Such a great songwriter. He finally, after so many years, somebody talked to him and said, don't sell your songs. You're not making any money. You want to keep that song, keep those royalties. And he was able to do that with the Patsy Cline song. He's still around today, probably because he listened.

[00:15:15.570] - DJJonniBravo
I don't know if it's Kris Kristopherson or who it was that told him, but one of his buddies said, hey, man, you need to keep those royalties. That's a big thing that you don't understand in the music industry. You're not making money unless you're writing those songs or you have an impact with those songs. And Willie Nelson was one of those guys.

[00:15:29.850] - Boyd Headley
Yeah, I remember that he gave away some of his songs. He made up for it over eight decades or so.

[00:15:35.970] - DJJonniBravo
He definitely did make up for it. We are better off if you think, you know Willie Nelson, and you're just looking at him and what he looks like today. Take a look at him from back in the 50s and 60s, he's had career like a Johnny Cash, where he's just been in every single, solitary decade that we've had. And he just continues to go strong. He's still releasing albums and singles, even to this day, which is just an awesome thing for a songwriter and a singer.

[00:16:06.150] - Boyd Headley
Yeah, definitely. Just ask one of his good friends, Snoop Dogg.He's a good guy.

[00:16:10.830] - DJJonniBravo
When you can say you got a friend in Snoop Dogg, you're speaking pretty highly of your friends when you say, hey, Snoop Dogg is my buddy.

[00:16:18.870] - Boyd Headley
You're definitely crossing over the generation gap there.

[00:16:21.510] - Boyd Headley
We're going to talk about concerts now. And what's your first concert that you went to or the first concert that you might remember?

[00:16:29.070] - Boyd Headley
I remember, like, it was 30 years ago. So the first concert I actually remember going to was Molly Hatchet, Molly Hatchet Flirting With Disaster Tour. It was May 9, 1980 at Kings Dominion. So it was close here locally. I'll tell you, the thing that really stuck with me for all those years was when I first heard Molly Hatchet, that first song, the first drop of the drumbeat. The band was so tight, it sounded just like an album. You couldn't really tell the difference. They were just such good musicians.

[00:16:59.310] - Boyd Headley
It was just surreal. Like I was inside listening to the album, but it was a live concert event. It was a very powerful experience.

[00:17:07.410] - DJJonniBravo
Yeah.I often go on setlist.fm on the web and look at concerts at various sites around Richmond. Kings Dominion being one of them and looking at some of those shows. Just thinking, Man, if I could have just been at that show or this show or that show, just a fly on the wall. But when you are releasing an album, you are like on fire. You have that number one album or it's climbing up the charts and you're doing a show and you go to that show. It's nothing more powerful in the world than having that experience with that band.

[00:17:38.670] - DJJonniBravo
Even remembering somebody that you might not think about in your mind's eye, like Molly Hatchet.

[00:17:43.710] - Boyd Headley
That was a pretty special concert for me. Anyway. It was really not only the first concert, but actually went with the band we were talking about. It was part of that experience was sharing with other musicians. And part of it was just seeing a band of really that caliber. On top of that being a first time at a live, especially outdoor kind of a concert.

[00:18:01.950] - DJJonniBravo
We're going to take a look at music purchases. Now, I'm not sure if you remember what your first music purchase was. Was it tape or vinyl or stream? There's all kinds of ways to get music. Now, what was your first experience with getting something at the music store? or the record store?

[00:18:18.390] - Boyd Headley
Referring back to my earlier comments of listening to a lot of Country music. The first album I
purchased was vinyl. It was AC DC Back in Black. I had been listening to Country music on the radio, ready for school, all that for a couple of years, few years. Put the needle on that record, and all I can say is that changed my perspective. You might imagine it expanded my whole musical palette, and it introduced me to a different kind of music. Then I'll tell you, just a few years later, I bought a car.

[00:18:48.510] - Boyd Headley
When you buy a car, you got to have a stereo. I found a stereo in the Trading Post. Turned out it was a pretty good trip. It was up to Northern Virginia. I'm down in Warsaw, Virginia, a couple of hours to drive. But when I bought the car, the stereo that I bought to put in the car, turns out, was a quadraphonic car stereo. I don't know if anybody knows what a quadraphonic stereo is right now. But basically, all the music was put on four separate tracks so that you could actually turn one channel on and just listen to the drums so you can turn just the channel on to listen to vocals.

[00:19:19.770] - Boyd Headley
It was really a cool thing. It didn't last that long, but it really brought me was music, because along with the stereo came a couple of boxes of eight track quadraphonic tapes, everything from Sly and the Family Stone, Blood, Sweat, and Tears; Bachman Turner Overdrive; Deep Purple. It felt like everything that I'd never listened to was on those tapes. And so that was just a really kind of a dump of so many different musical influences. And it just opened my eyes to a lot of music that I had not heard. Up to that point.

[00:19:49.170] - DJJonniBravo
People don't give tape respect that it deserves. But quadraphonic being able to just listen to the drums, for somebody who plays that instrument or guitar. I never really understood that until I worked on the cruise ship, and I had this one guy that we worked with, Craig, and he would dissect the music. He would listen to every instrument, so he could learn that instrument, to be able to play, that he would program his equipment. Being in the middle of the hallway. Basically, that's what he would always say.

[00:20:16.710] - DJJonniBravo
I'm in the middle of a hallway playing the music. Play for everyone, and he's doing like, Pink Floyd and all this kind of stuff. To be able to have those quadraphonic tapes. That was like, you were like, probably a kid in a candy store or the best Christmas gift that you ever got; driving up to Northern Virginia. You probably didn't know what you were even getting into.

[00:20:34.050] - Boyd Headley
No. And once I got it installed, and once I saw those tapes, I would just sit in my car and listen to that stuff for hours and not even go inside.

[00:20:42.570] - DJJonniBravo
Yeah, there's nothing like it in the world just being one man with the machine. And that could be your drums. That could be your stereo. People don't really understand when we say we have musical appreciation, they're like, oh, that's nice. That's a nice little hobby to have. Boyd, when you're playing drums, that's nice. You're doing good over there in the bands and playing at the churches and playing Lynyrd Skynyrd and all that stuff that's cute. And you got your car and you got your quadraphonic sound. That's nice.

[00:21:12.810] - DJJonniBravo
They don't understand the level of commitment that we have and the passion and the love and the admiration that we have at this thing called music. Why we're pointing to it. It's just such an awesome thing. I'm sure. Like I said, that box opened several worlds for you.

[00:21:31.350] - Boyd Headley
That was totally unexpected, gift. But also every one of those tapes was like, I said it was like a new world. It really was. It was stuff that I didn't know even what to look for sometime. So, it definitely opened my eyes up and did that. It helped me to appreciate, though. Also, this is as a profession. It's a lot of work. All those bands I'm talking about, people think that playing in a band, even just a small band takes a lot of work, a lot of practice.

[00:21:58.710] - Boyd Headley
When I was, at a certain point, I was transcribing all the songs that I was playing because that was helping me to be better at what I'm doing. But that was like, all day, all night. There really wasn't a lot of extra time. So all those stories about the rock and roll life is really to work it's a job. Yeah.

[00:22:16.890] - DJJonniBravo
And it's not a nine to five job either. It does take a lot of work. Did you take any of those influences from that quadrophonic box? You said you jotted them down. Did you take any of those things back and incorporate it? I don't know if you were in a band at that time or if you were playing drums at that time or not. Did you take that stuff back to the bands or did that kind of seep into the bands that you were playing with? How did that box of music kind of not only expand your mind, it probably just blew your mind, but how did they expand it going into your bands and playing the drums and stuff like that?

[00:22:49.470] - Boyd Headley
Every song I heard I absorbed. So, like, you listen to Sly in the Family Stone, you can't forget that you can't unhear that. So whatever kind of music I was playing at the time, always trying to bring out, hey, let's play this song, even though it's not necessarily our genre. We had a female singer like, let's play this as a great vocal, great lyric. I always try to do that. I was always trying to reach out a little beyond what we were doing at the time, but that was just what I liked.

[00:23:16.590] - Boyd Headley
I just wanted to play what I liked. Usually it worked out. Usually it worked out because, again, music isa family. Even if it's a little different genre, it's a little different style. You find that the roots are the same.

[00:23:28.710] - DJJonniBravo
Talking about your first purchase there the AC DC Back in Black. I don't know why I don't give AC DC the credit that they deserve when you play that album on vinyl and you have a pretty decent copy and a pretty decent sound system. You know speakers make all the difference. A lot of people just got I just hooked up whatever kind of speakers I had my wife's cousin do that. I went out and bought her a pair of speakers. Like, you need a pair of speakers to listen to your Pink Floyd

[00:23:54.630] - DJJonniBravo
If you like Pink Floyd you need to get a good pair of speakers. AC DC the same thing playing that on a system on vinyl. And you got good speakers. And you're listening to that. Those types of things just kind of blow your way when you can hear the Hi hat or you can hear the bass guitar, you can hear the screeching and the singing or whatever that is. It brings out the Spider sense. It brings out the hair on your arms and get those goosebumps.

[00:24:23.550] - DJJonniBravo
And you're like, what in the hell is this? What just happened, right? It's like that. I just crashed into AC DC or whatever the latest thing is.

[00:24:36.030] - Boyd Headley
Yes, that's exactly right for me. That's exactly what happened. They really knocked me out when I first heard AC DC, like, you just crashed into this wall of music and energy. Maybe you thought you heard it before, but they captured it on vinyl. Like you say, when you capture something vinyl, it's almost more real than real sometimes.

[00:25:01.930] - DJJonniBravo
Yeah, people don't often realize either. That when you're in a band and you want a record, you want to have that thing that you sell at the show. You want a T shirt, you want these things. Back in the day, people don't realize now you just go and you're on Apple, snap your fingers and you're doing stuff. You can do it at home. A lot of things you could do at home, but it was all tape and this and that. Trying to get that track out or that tape out or whatever it was. Did you guys, any of your bands in The Avengers or any of the other bands did you ever record any material and actually put it out on wax yourself?

[00:25:36.490] - Boyd Headley
Actually didn't really market anything out. While I say this, a lot of bands in the 70s, 60s or whatever they played, like Van Halen is a great example of a great band. They were like a cover band, even up into their first couple of albums. Really. It was a different experience trying to get your material recorded. A couple of bands I played, and we did do certainly original material. We were really going around playing everywhere we could play and playing the best music, music that we loved. And that was sort of our core of what we did. Not really recording material in the way that, like you said, people can do today.

[00:26:07.390] - Boyd Headley
You can't just do it in your basement or you couldn't.

[00:26:09.670] - DJJonniBravo
Speaking of Van Halen, you can totally tell the separation of Van Roth and Van Hagar. If you take a look at Van Roth and you see all the cover songs that they did. They do a lot of that with Hagar, and it's because that was like their roots. That's where they came from, from Pasadena. They were playing a lot of those cover songs and doing a lot of those things. I mean, Dave was wild anyway. With Hagar, he was wild, too. But with Van Hagar, he kind of had calmed down a little bit by then.

[00:26:41.290] - DJJonniBravo
You see a lot of that in the roots of the band. But playing live is another way to get it out there. Which most people don't understand either. I just want a copy of it all listed in my house. When you can see and hear a band live, it sticks with you.

[00:26:54.790] - Boyd Headley
Oh, yeah and Van Halen they were a party band. Thing about them, I guess when I was listening to them when I was younger. Not until Jump that they really got on my radar. Look at that. A rock and roll band. And now they're playing keyboards. Think about that a little more. Really one of the, because everybody has their argument for who's the greatest guitar player. You have one of the greatest guitar players. And now he's playing keyboards. And also he's playing guitar and plays one of probably the best solos you hear, uncredited on Michael Jackson's Beat It right.

[00:27:25.990] - Boyd Headley
Just because he loved to play.

[00:27:28.390] - DJJonniBravo
And that's just that if you love to play, you love to play, we're going to take a break. We'll be right back. So hang on. We are back. I'm Jonni Bravo. You're going under the musical influence of today's guest Boyd Headley on Under the influence with DJJonniBravo. All right, Boyd, now we're into the tough questions here. What is your favorite song?

[00:28:11.390] - Boyd Headley
I talked about the songwriting. I think that really would have a lot of impact on me. Anthem by
Leonard Cohen is one of the really great songs. And beyond that poets of our time. I'd put him right up there with any songwriter in the last 50 years. Anthem, if anybody hasn't heard that song, there's a lyric that really goes pretty deep for me. And basically what that is is: Ring the bells that still can ring, Forget your perfect offering, There's a crack in everything, And that's how the light gets in.

[00:28:40.490] - Boyd Headley
That was a really deep, spiritual kind of lyric. When you listen to it and you listen to it, I think the older you get, the more you listen to songs like that, the more you really appreciate what the meaning is. However, any Leonard Cohen song is tied for that. Again Cohen, he was just like Bob Dylan when Bob Dylan was really the poet laureate of rock and roll. Leonard Cohen was right there, equal to him. Bands, though you asked about. Every Blues band legend, Buddy Waters, BB King, Johnny Lee Hooker, Albert King, then every band that they influence.

[00:29:13.250] - Boyd Headley
We already talked about it. Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Rolling Stones, all of those older players influenced that generation that really revolutionized music. And because I really like him, Van Halen. The thing about Eddie Van Halen is that he actually changed the instrument. He transformed the guitar physically. He actually modified and built his own guitars. And he transformed the instrument for everyone. And like I said, just for fun, he goes out and he plays one of the coolest solos ever.

[00:29:43.130] - DJJonniBravo
I want to put a pause on one thing there about being one with the instrument. I want to come back to that. But I want to talk about Leonard Cohen for a minute. And I don't know if you know the story as much as we've known each other for a good while. I don't have ever told you this story, but if you've ever watched the movie Pump Up the Volume with Christian Slater. He plays a pirate radio DJ, and his name is Happy Harry Hard On, because that's the way the school that they went, the initials of the school was HHH.

[00:30:08.150] - DJJonniBravo
So he decided that was going to be his radio name. Happy Harry Hard On. He plays a lot of Cohen in his parted radio station. He plays a lot of other crazy crap, too. But he plays a lot of Cohen. He would turn the lights down. I think his studio was in the basement or attached to the garage or something like that. And so he would turn the lights down, put on some Cohen. And that music is just not only is it so soulful, I mean, it's just so soulful, it speaks to your soul.

[00:30:33.950] - DJJonniBravo
But also you're talking about the lyrics, too.

[00:30:39.410] - DJJonniBravo
But, it's like sitting on the beach and the waves are just coming. A lot of people listen to waves when they go to sleep at night. It has that kind of calming effect. Leonard Cohen has that kind of calming effect. Would you agree with that?

[00:30:54.650] - Boyd Headley
Big fan of Leonard Cohen? And I kind of caught him late later in his career when I really started to appreciate him. But, yeah, I mean, the lyrics that he writes are really a story that all of us can tell. And by the way, I learned something today. We've never talked about Cohen. You could take any of his songs, and you have the same reaction. Hallelujah, Anthem. Dance Me to the End of Love, every song he wrote and sang was just epic, I think, and it just moved people.

[00:31:24.470] - Boyd Headley
And that's why he's probably one of the most covered songwriters of ever. So, yeah, I definitely had that same experience. He's at the top of the list. There are just so many good musicians, and there's so many good songwriters. But very few people reach the pinnacle. And he did that. We're still talking about him.

[00:31:42.650] - DJJonniBravo
That's right. We're still talking about him. The other thing about that song, Hallelujah, that people don't understand. And sometimes people don't understand with lyrics and music. And they just, oh, I play it. I like the beat and DA DA. And I just want to hear the drum line. And they're not really listened. Sometimes they're not really listening to the lyrics. Other times they're listening to the beat other times. But the song Hallelujah. And there's other songs. I think the song Take Me to Church. People play that as a spiritual song in Church.

[00:32:09.050] - DJJonniBravo
And if you really listen to the lyrics for Hallelujah or Take Me to Church, and if you knew what the song was actually about, if you read what Leonard Cohen wrote the song for and you read the Take Me To Church song, what they actually wrote the song for. You might not be playing those songs in Church. That's something that sometimes I think, is lost in translation with music that people don't really understand. And we're sitting there going, Why are we playing the song? You don't have the respect for the song.

[00:32:36.950] - DJJonniBravo
Why are we listening to the song right now? You know what I mean? It's like, this is not the time. This is a great song, but it's not meant for this space.

[00:32:46.370] - Boyd Headley
One of the things I think when you listen to a song like one of those Leonard Cohen. Lots of other songs that were similar kind of Genesis. It really gets to the core of humanity. And all I can say is, listen, some songwriters are going to really grab you and some won't, but some are pretty universal in terms of they're going to pull some strings that not many people can pull from lyric.

[00:33:11.030] - DJJonniBravo
With that experience to Pump Up the Volume with Christian Slater, that really had me want to be on the radio. That really had me want to be a DJ that really had me want to steal the air. We talk about equipment all the time. We talk about things getting easier. We talk about recording. We talked about it a little bit earlier with people being able to just, hey, my song is on Spotify or it's on Apple tunes or whatever. We would kill for a tape or a CD back in the day. But I put a pin in it.

[00:33:35.810] - DJJonniBravo
And this is what I want to come back to because you talked about Eddie Van Halen, and you talked about how he transformed the instrument. People that love the music and love the instrument. Sometimes they understand. But the people that are out there in the general public, they don't understand. He made a whole guitar. And you were telling me a story today about something that you made. Hopefully, this isn't your end. I don't want to steal the Thunder from the end. Can you talk a little bit about you transforming your instrument. Because you talked about it earlier with someone transforming and designing the bass drum and revitalizing Metal music as we know it.

[00:34:10.070] - DJJonniBravo
You did something that had an impact on someone else. Can you elaborate on that?

[00:34:15.410] - Boyd Headley
So there's a story, a little bit of a story there. One of the bands I played with were based out of down towards Virginia Beach. At some point, through musician friends of musician friends. We had gotten together with a couple of the Wooten Brothers. I don't know if you're familiar with the Wooten Brothers, but they're very well known musicians. Victor Wooten has played all over the world. He actually plays with a band called Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, and they've been playing, I think, for 30 years together.

[00:34:41.030] - Boyd Headley
And he's one of the great bass players. His brother, Roy Wooten, is a drummer. Actually, he has an interest early on, in terms of utilizing technology to improve the instrument. Think back in the 80s, there was a lot of things going on with drum machines, electronic drum set, that whole kind of technology, in that wave of instruments was happening back in the mid 80s to early 90s. Well, actually. So you mentioned earlier concert, a Miami Sound machine. I saw them, too, at Kings Dominion. And one of the things that happened is, I think the drummer was featured and they came out to just not really solo, but just to kind of add to the entertainment aspect.

[00:35:20.270] - Boyd Headley
But he had electronic drum. Well, I'm sorry. Electronic guitar, and it was pretty basic. But he was able to play just the drum beat on this electronic guitar. Which basically was a way to tap and play a bass drum and a snare drum on the wooden instrument. So I thought about that said that looked pretty cool. I wonder if I could make one of those. That's neat. That drum machine. I had a full kit electronic drums, electronic drum machine. So, I went back and started figuring out how to make something like that.

[00:35:50.690] - Boyd Headley
Actually, worked with my grandfather because he was just a tinker. I never rode on a bicycle that he didn't build, by the way. So we constructed one looked just like a guitar, and I was able to tap out a beat. So I had that with me when I was with this group of musician friends, and we were just kind of had a get together. It wasn't anything. Of course, when you get musicians together, people are going to start playing music, right? Somebody started playing. I think it was a Prince song.

[00:36:17.630] - Boyd Headley
And at the time, midterm 80s Prince was pretty big. His big influence on me in terms of just at that time, he was a great player. He was a great writer. I was following a lot of his music. So I happened to know that the beat in the song well enough. And so I started playing on that instrument that we've made. One of the people that was at that gathering was Roy Wooten. And he started asking me questions. He said, who does your wires? Like, who sets out your drum equipment?

[00:36:41.810] - Boyd Headley
Because there's a lot of cords to connect to different parts of the kit. You have to connect that to the drum machine, and you had to put it together to make it make fail. But anyway, and one of the other things he's like, Where did you get that guitar drum? I explained to him I just kind of made it because it really wasn't anything. It wasn't commercially available kind of a thing. But he said, I'm working on that. He actually had created something. I don't think I know the name of it, but he created his own instrument to be able to play drums on a guitar device.

[00:37:10.610] - Boyd Headley
It's not the same as, like a synthesizer that some people would play in the fashion of guitar. I thought about that. And he actually went on and played with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones using that instrument. And he evolved that instrument, by the way. To go from just being able to play drums on a guitar looking device, to making it very melodic as well. So he really innovated that. But at that time, there wasn't really anything. It was kind of cool. Think about Virginia Beach around that time.

[00:37:37.010] - Boyd Headley
This is a little bit before some folks like Pharrell came out, they were from the same area. A lot of the people I was sort of kicking around with, at that time would go on to do really great things. But then I kind of got out of Dodge. I played and then decided to do some different things and move in a different direction. You never know the path not taken, I guess the lesson.

[00:37:57.350] - DJJonniBravo
Yeah, we talked about it earlier today. When you were bringing up Pharrell, and you were asking me about artists in the Richmond area. And I was saying we had Fighting Gravity and Gwar. And, of course, we have Dave Matthews Band and others that we can point to. And then down at the beach. Besides Pharrell, you had Timberland and Magoo doing stuff. You had Missy Misdemeanor Elliot. And that's hard to say if you're trying to say that three times fast. All of those people in some way or the other.

[00:38:23.930] - DJJonniBravo
You probably influenced a little bit because you influenced him and his music, and it pushed their music. And that's what this whole thing is about. You don't realize how your music is influencing these other folks in your area or outside of your area. You influence Pharrell in around about sort of way. And you might have influenced Timberland Magoo and Missy Misdemeanor Elliot. I'm trying to say that three times fast and I'm not going to be able to.

[00:38:50.570] - Boyd Headley
Yeah. I'm not going to try. All those people surrounded a lot of produce for all those folks, I believe. And that was a movement just like people talk about Minneapolis. When Prince was there, it really wasn't the music capital of the world, right? It wasn't Mecca. But it was when Prince was there.

[00:39:05.810] - DJJonniBravo
Prince definitely made it the Mecca with the Time ,Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, they went on to help Janet Jackson and carve that whole sound out. They were with the time he had Apollonia, Vanity Six. You had these different bands that he played for. But a lot of people probably don't really realize with Prince, how many Pseudonyms that he went under and how many songs that he wrote for other people. Sinead O'Connor did a cover of his The Bangles had Manic Monday. There's so many things that you don't even realize until you start diving a little deeper into the music that you find out.

[00:39:43.490] - DJJonniBravo
These influences, influence other people. And that whole movement kind of highlighted earlier, the area that you're in and the regionality that you're in having that impact. I don't know if it's as much as it is today. It still is a little bit. I look at influences that I like Twenty One Pilots who I've told you about. They kind of still influence the local scene in Columbus, but they're like more worldwide now. They kind of start quicker. You don't really have that regional kind of following. And that regional kind of thing going on for as long as you probably used to with a lot of these bands, like what you had to do with some of your bands, like The Avengers and others.

[00:40:26.390] - Boyd Headley
Music is like an ocean to me. You have waves that develop and then at certain points in time, the water becomes a wave, and the wave just washes over everybody. You can see it like you said, the British Invasion back in the 60s. You can see it back in the 80s. And when Prince was really riding high on Purple Rain, these were like musical movements, really. And they influenced a lot of people, just like a wave is made of drops of water. These waves of creativity, they're an accumulation of a lot of people trying a lot of different things, and then something really catches on.

[00:41:02.810] - Boyd Headley
And next thing you know, you have a whole genre of music that wasn't there.

[00:41:07.310] - DJJonniBravo
Yeah I sometimes think about bands that I really like, like The Beastie Boys or other bands that I grew up with. Think really hard sometimes, like, somebody going to remember this band. It's such a great band, like REM. They broke up and the people still remember them. And you have people that are still playing those records. I got in the car the other day. My daughter's playing REM. I just had a smile on my face because I'm just like, man, she's playing REM. That's so cool. But I worry sometimes because all these bands and are these artists that we're talking about, are they still going to be known?

[00:41:39.410] - DJJonniBravo
People are still going to be playing them. I mean, I think people are going to be playing Cohen. See, say, Missy, Missy, I can't say that three times fast. It's hard. But I think people are going to be talking about these bands and these groups and these artists, Prince and Michael Jackson and all these kind of movements that you have, like, you talked about in music. It's just such an awesome thing to be a part of and to witness. But who's the next Michael Jackson? Who's the next Prince?

[00:42:04.190] - DJJonniBravo
Those are sometimes the things that excite me. Who's the next Eddie Van Halen? Seeing those
people live and maybe catching them before they really hit. You're, like, I got a chance to see them back when they were nobody at this little joint, wherever it was. I don't know if anybody's saying that about you, but you did have an influence in the locality of not just where you were, but you expanded it out further to the Virginia Beach area, which is just, I think an awesome thing.

[00:42:27.590] - Boyd Headley
Everybody I had played with and I know right now. They went all over the country. Some of them went to Atlanta, some went down, more towards Nashville, some went up to New York.

[00:42:36.770] - Boyd Headley
You're right.

[00:42:37.130] - Boyd Headley
All those influences, we all influence each other. Music doesn't die. Technology is making that more and more and more real. But at the same time, people don't remember some of those folks they were talking about that are just a few decades ago. But really had a great impact on the music they're listening to now. And they'll rediscover it. It's like I rediscovered Leonard Cohen for myself, where I rediscovered. Wow, Louie Bellson. When I discovered folks that I idolized and I tried to pattern my playing on, I realized, wow.

[00:43:05.090] - Boyd Headley
I thought I had some great ideas, but I never thought of doing things that they were doing.

[00:43:08.810] - DJJonniBravo
So we've been waiting for it. We've been building up to it. I know you're ready for it. And I know you're ready for this to be over. I applaud you, Boyd. I appreciate you being here with me. Boyd has done his homework. He has been ready and faithful. He's the one that's been pushing me to do this podcast. I really appreciate his camaraderie and being a great friend at work and pushing me to do this podcast. Because it probably wouldn't be around, if he hadn't been pushing me.

[00:43:33.710] - DJJonniBravo
And then I asked him if he wanted to be my first guest, and I think he was wondering why he was pushing me after that. But we're going to go to our last question, the big final. How has music impacted your life?

[00:43:51.750] - Boyd Headley
I'll just leave you with this. We've talked a lot about music being more than just about songs and guitar solos and drum beats. I remember just from playing in a lot of different places. I have a couple of really vivid memories. One of those is in the midst of playing different places all the way up and down the East Coast, further out west. One day we were playing in Natchez, Mississippi, Mississippi, and I sat on the River Bank in Natchez, and I just watched a barge slowly go down the Mississippi River for about an hour.

[00:44:23.010] - Boyd Headley
I remember I'd been playing we've been in this environment where high energy. And I just sat there and watched that barge go down the river for about an hour. It really changed my concept of time. Because it wasn't speeding down a highway or in a big truck. It was moving very slowly. And as I watched it, I felt like time was slowing down for me. Every year after high school, I played with childhood music teacher. His name was Douglas. We called him Doc Anderson, and so for decades, I just always made that time every year to play with him on New Year's Eve.

[00:44:53.490] - Boyd Headley
He was a really great influence on me. I just remember right up until shortly before he's passing. We always had that chance to play one gig together. When he passed away that also changed my concept of time. Music has been there every step of the way for the slow down and enjoy life period when I was sitting on the banks of the Mississippi River to mourning someone that was a great influence on my life.

[00:45:18.090] - DJJonniBravo
This is the impact that music has on Boyd's life. This is the impact that music has on a lot of your lives out there in the audience. This is why we take this passion for this music. And we've talked about these things. I don't even know when was the first time that Boyd and I got together and talked about him playing drums or me being a DJ and stuff like that. But I'm glad that we have had those times where we've been able to talk about that.

[00:45:42.870] - DJJonniBravo
I'm glad that we've had this time today that we've been able to talk about your influences. And I really appreciate your willingness to be my first guest. I also appreciate you pushing me to do this podcast. Because here we are with equipment with microphones. You wouldn't know that we're in a library right now. Because I guess we're supposed to be quiet. But we are in a room, so hopefully we're not making too much noise, and we're doing this podcast. Boyd is here contributing to it. And I really do appreciate you.

[00:46:11.130] - DJJonniBravo
Do you have anything final to say before we get on out of here?

[00:46:14.850] - Boyd Headley
Just reiterate, how long ago was it that we first talked about a podcast?

[00:46:19.050] - DJJonniBravo
Oh, man, it's probably been. I don't know. Maybe a year ago. Does it seem that long?

[00:46:23.370] - Boyd Headley
So there again. Enjoy it. Time goes by, quick, man. Time goes by. Quick music is a part of how we experience our life as we grow older.

[00:46:31.650] - DJJonniBravo
Boyd kept pushing me and pushing me. When you have somebody doing that, it's a double edged sword. Because one you don't want to tell anybody what your dream is. And then the other thing is, when you have somebody pushing you towards that dream you're like. Okay, why did I tell them to do it? Because now I got to buy equipment. I got to do all this kind of stuff. But he just kept after me and kept influencing me to do this. So I really do appreciate him being here.

[00:46:50.910] - DJJonniBravo
So thanks for going under the musical influence of today's guest Boyd Headley on Under the Influence with DJJonniBravo. I also want to give thanks and a shout out to Year of October for the rocking drops that they supplied and SweetWater for the equipment. Go Under the Influence on Instagram at DJJonniBravo_undertheinfluence, and that's D-J-O-N-N-I-B-R-A-V-O. Underscore Under the Influence. Please subscribe to Under the Influence with DJJonniBravo. Wherever you listen to your podcast, I'm Jonni Bravo. I will see you next time. Goodbye.