Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yeah, hither Detroit Wheels.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Hey, Doug, how's it going?
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Jason Hartle was here, Jason heartless Junior. How the heck
are you, my friend?
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Doing fantastic just in my home in Nashville, Tennessee, and
you know, wheeling and doing and doing all the things.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Yeah, I saw that new criby picked up. It looks
pretty sharp. I gotta I gotta start out by congratulating
you on your on your wedding, on your marriage to Alexandria.
That's incredible.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Congratulations, Oh, thank you so much, sing you so much. Yeah,
it's pretty crazy. You know, we got married last November,
and you know it's this is all to blame from
mister Ted Nugent.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Yes it is. Well a lot of our lives are,
you know, connected to that man. There's no doubt about it.
But since I've known you since you were ten years old,
I think it's great. You know, now you're a man,
my son, Now you are a man. So you got
some dates in Michigan with Ted Nugent, a number of
them around the the state, including the one that cracks
(01:03):
me up really is pop on Michigan. Because I always
thought that was like a myth. I did think that
was a real place, but apparently it is, and you're
gonna play there along with the Michigan Lottery Empatheater on
August thirty. First, you got to feel pretty good about
getting back behind that Wango Tango right.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Oh. Absolutely. You know, we we seized long form touring
back in twenty twenty three, and last year we did
two one off shows in Pennsylvania and Maryland. So it's
you know, we've kind of stayed doing some things this year.
You know, coming back to Detroit after two years is
just going to be absolutely amazing. And you know, always
(01:43):
playing Freedom Hills highlight for me because I grew up
in Fraser, Michigan, literally a mile from the venue, and
my parents still live right there. So it's always a
treat to come back home, you know withs Ed and
you know us doing these six Michigan shows and we've
got one show and at a fair in July in Wisconsin.
(02:04):
You know, so doing these one off shows and homecoming
stuff is just is just amazing and you know, it
keeps keeps us working and you know, keeps the fans
getting what they want.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Yeah. Absolutely, Man, Live Live Ted Nugent. That's what we
all want, and there's no reason for him not to
be out there. I know he's you know, I know
he's kind of semi retired, but it's going to be
great to have back out there, for sure. So I've
seen a lot of the videos on social media of Ted.
I've never seen him so excited about the vault. And
(02:35):
you were the guy who discovered the vault. So why
don't you, you know, fill us in a little bit
on this.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Well, you know, it's kind of a crazy thing because
you know, we didn't tour in twenty and twenty one
due to COVID, so there's about a two year gap
where all of our stuff had just been, you know,
sitting in the barn where all of our gear is
in Michigan. And we we go to do our first
one off show in April twenty two and I go
out to the ranch, you know, to get my gear
(03:04):
and stuff, and I see these just boxes stacked all
over the place of VHS tapes and cassette tapes and
all this stuff. And I look at it and it's,
you know, like rehearsals nineteen eighty one, Demo nineteen seventy five,
Live nineteen seventy seven, You know, and I looked at Ted,
I was like, these got to be transferred immediately. And
(03:26):
you know that's that turned into a now a three
year project of you know, me going through everything, the
hundreds and hundreds of tapes and two inch tapes and
quarter inch tapes and and everything in between, and transferring
and archiving and you know, putting this all together. And
you know, we've over the years released small little things
(03:46):
like the free for all record, all rough Mix on vinyl,
and some small things here and there. But when we
started looking at this entire thing as a whole, where like,
we've got so much content, we literally can't release all
of this. So we ended up coming up with this
concept of the Nuge Vault as a subscription service fan
(04:07):
experience that we can now create a platform to where
we can release all this stuff over years, so.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
You'll put it out digitally and people can subscribe. And
I saw the subscription variations of what you can and
cannot get. But will there be some of this coming
out on vinyl on your label like a couple of
years ago, or is it all strictly going to be subscription.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Most of it's going to be a subscription just because
we can't physically manufacture everything we're but we are going
to save the most important things for a physical release.
Like right now, we are in the middle of finalizing
a vinyl release that is going to be the demos
for the entire first Ted Nugent record, because this whole
(04:56):
year we're celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of that with Stranglehold
and just with the Doctor Ordered and Storm Troupe and
all these all these classic songs. So we've been saving
all this stuff, and we found the actual demo recordings
of you know, the the first album, so well we
will be yeah, well we will be doing a physical
(05:18):
release down the road of that, but most of the
will all be streaming, just because it's just we've got
so much we just physically can't.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Yeah, it's live concerts, I mean a full and you know,
a full live concert from say New Year's Eve or
California Jam or something like that. Oh my god, how
incredible is this? So there's there's bushels of it. Who
who's taken the time to go through all this? Is
that your job?
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Yeah, it's it's it's been a long three years as going.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Through I want to help.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Well, and you know, that's that's the thing. You've You've
gotten some some pretty uh first look access to a
lot of this stuff, so you know firsthand how there's
some amazing, amazing gems in this catalog of unreleased stuff.
And you know, having to go through and meticulously remaster
and nix and you know, Fix has just been very
(06:12):
very painstaking over the years. But you know, we've we've
are very very happy with our final product. And I
know the fans have been just absolutely raving about this product.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
So how have the subscription orders gone and and tell
us a little bit about the different levels.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Yeah, they've been amazing. And you know what we tried
to do when we were developing this was we wanted
to have something to where people can you know, they
aren't just stuck with one thing. They aren't stuck with
one option. We basically have four different options. We have
a free tier, which is you know, give some people
life live streams and some blog access. But the main
(06:53):
tiers are going to be the Stranglehold, which we do
offer in a monthly a month the subscription, but if
we pay, if you pay annually for that, you get
two exclusive limit edition items sent to your door every
every every year. And then our top tier package, which
(07:14):
is what everyone's been going for, and it's it's pretty amazing,
is the Gonzo package, which we're if you it's only
annually subscription and you get four autographed items each year,
and your membership card will be autographed by Ted as well.
So it's it's everyone's been going for that package, and
you know, it's just been absolutely amazing seeing the fan
(07:37):
reaction of this whole thing, and we're very, very proud
with the final product.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
So over the years, I've seen Ted backstage sign hundreds
of hats. Now it's gonna be like thousands of hats
Arrows albums. I hope you've got a few extra sharpies
for them. But man, Jason, this is just a fantastic project,
but even better for the fans. I mean, what a
(08:03):
what a great way to go. You don't see much
of this. I mean Jack White has it with you know,
Third Man Records and White Stripes, But you know, I
got a feeling that your model here is going to
be copied by many more bands as you know, the
future rolls on. But congratulations, I'm putting this thing together
(08:23):
for for Ted NuGen and yourself a little bit I guess,
you know, I definitely think that people need to go
to the website and tell us the website and everything
where people can you know, once they hear about this
sign up.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Yes, it's super straightforward, you know, nuge vault dot com
and all the informations there. And you know, we're we're
really really happy that this this thing has kind of
turned the way it does. I mean, there are some
similar things out there. Bon Jovi has something, but this
is kind of the first time that anything on this
scale has ever been done with a leg see artist,
(09:01):
And you know, I think we're we're very lucky to
be in a position that Ted has obtained and kept
ownership of so much of his stuff over the years,
and and he just and he just kept all these
tapes and you know, kept everything to himself. So now
we're in a position of we have access to so
much stuff that you know, honestly, a lot of artists
(09:22):
back in the day just didn't really think that much through,
you know, and they gave it away or just didn't
document any of this stuff. So having having the luxury
of the catalog that we have is just you know,
absolutely phenomenal to to you know, be able to create
a project like this.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
What was there anything that you found so far? And
I know you've probably got tons more to go through,
but anything that you found so far that you just said, oh,
oh my god, wait a minute, hold on, Uh, we
got to put this up on this subscription. So what
what was it to?
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Well, you know, the the the honestly, the the demos
for the first NUJN album, you know, with the with
the first demo of Stranglehold and all this stuff. And
you know, I've been going through all these tapes and
you know, some are marked and some aren't really marked
very well. You know, I just got to put them
on and transfer them and then you know, gauge what's
actually on him. Well, I found this tape that looked
(10:18):
like it said rehearsal seven eight five. So I was like, okay,
this is something from nineteen eighty five, and I put
it on and it actually was not an eight, it
was a seven. And so it was actually April of
seventy five them about a month before they recorded the
(10:39):
first album. Learning Ted learned, you know, teaching the band
MotorCity Madhouse and teaching the band Stranglehold and all this stuff.
And I just I immediately called Ted. I was like,
you ain't gonna believe what we just found, and he
just flipped out. And and you know, for us to
even number one, for this tape to even survive fifty
years and it's like a sette tape, and to also
(11:01):
be in a position where it sounds as good as
it does, you know, it just was was the diamond
in the rough?
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Wow? There you go. Well, absolutely, and you know, just
the story. I talked to Ted a couple of weeks
ago when he announced the tour, and he talked about
the vault and he talked about, you know, Stranglehold. It
he told the story of you know, the beginnings of Stranglehold,
and that got you know, goosebumps on my arm. So
I can't even imagine what the demos and all of
(11:29):
this is going to sound like. It's going to be like,
you know, sitting in the studio with the Beatles or something.
So I'm pretty excited about it myself. So, how are
rehearsals going for this fiftieth Stranglehold anniversary? Do you get
a chance ahead to Texas? Or are you and Jackson
or how you guys working that out?
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Well, we've got a We've got a one off show
in July for a fair in Wisconsin, so we'll probably. Honestly,
we sometimes we rehearse, sometimes we don't. I mean, I've
been in the band ten years now and our bass
player has been around for a couple of years, so
you know, we're even even not playing for a year,
you know, we all stay on our instruments and and
know what what to do. What you know, when we
(12:12):
come in, it's going to be as best as we
can be. So we know we always are ready to go,
and you know, we might rehearse, we might not, And honestly,
I think that's what sometimes brings a little bit more
spontaneous to these shows because we're not on backing tracks.
We're not on a click track, you know, so it
has more of that that raw vibe to it, which
I love.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Are you anticipating anything new in the set that maybe
you guys haven't done in front of the Detroit audience before,
like maybe bringing back Queen of the Forest from that album.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Or honestly, you never know. With him, you know, he uh,
he's some He sometimes have pulled out songs on stage
that we haven't played in four years.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
No, satisfaction.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Right, yeah, exactly, So you just you just really never know.
And I think that's again what what sometimes you know
fans can expect is you just never know what you
know because a couple of years ago we were doing
Thousand Knives off cast stretch Fever, and you know, we
did the Street Rats a couple of times, so like
there are deep cuts that will just randomly pop up
in the set, and I think that's what you know,
(13:16):
really keeps fans enjoying the shows.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
All right, Jason, Well, what's that website again, so people
can subscribe to this.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Vault nuge vault dot com.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
All right, nuge vault dot com, Jason Hartley's junior. Thank
you so much for spending some time with us and
filling us in on this Nuge vault. And uh, I'm excited.
I know the city of Detroit will be too, So congratulations.
I'm putting this thing together. Brother.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Oh, thank you so much. Jack.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
All right, we'll see you there at Freedom Hill, buddy,