Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm Jeff Stevens.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
It's my eighties show podcast, chatting with one of my
favorite rock vocalists, Mickey Thomas of Elvin Bishop back in
the day and so many decades with Starship. Mickey's got
a new classic Christmas album, Mickey.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
How are you?
Speaker 3 (00:13):
I'm good, Jeff, how are you.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Nice to talk to you again? Mickey.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
We've done several shows with you over the years and
love love hearing you play live, and man, those vocals
are still sounding awesome.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Oh thank you man. Yeah, I've been very for my
voice has been good to me.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
It has, and I definitely want to talk about some
of the things you've sung over the years. But I
was so excited to see that Mickey Thomas has your
first ever holiday release. It's a classic Christmas and man,
your voice sounds so good and I immediately went to
the Christmas song because that is my favorite and just sweet, sweet,
beautiful vocals.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Oh thank you very much man. You know, I'm real
happy with the record, happy with the way it turned out.
I've always wanted to do a Christmas album that I've
waited a long time, but I finally got the chance
to do it, and I'm real thrilled with it.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
The songs that you chose for the album just scream nostalgia.
Is that kind of what made you do it?
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Most? Definitely? I really wanted to capture the nostalgia and
the warmth of kind of a period gone by. You know.
I did songs that I remember listening to you when
I was a kid, when I was growing up, and
songs that I would hear my mom singing around the house.
And I wanted to do those kind of songs, and
I wanted to just keep kind of true to the
(01:27):
original arrangements, you know, the original vibe of the songs
and not you know, I don't like it when Christmas
songs get rocked up too much. I mean they should
be pure and you know, stick to the to the
way the song was originally intended. So I really tried
(01:47):
hard to do that.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Yeah, well you've definitely done it.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Chatting here with Mickey Thomas of Starship, A Classic Christmas
is now out and eight songs on there. So I'm
interested which one As you're thinking about these you know,
nostalgic titles, which one did you go for first? What
was the one You're like, Okay, I gotta do this
one first.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Yeah, the first song I recorded, which I think kind
of set the tone for the album, was have Yourself
a Merry Little Christmas Nice, And you know, that was
one and I wanted the whole album to kind of
have that nostalgic feel, that feeling of warmth, but that
one at the same time almost has a little bit
of a melancholy edge to it because I just remember
(02:29):
seeing Judy Garland and Meet Me in Saint Louis in
the window sill. You know, the first time that song
ever appeared was in the movie Meet Me in Saint Louis,
and she's singing to her little sister and trying to
comfort her and let her know that you were going
to be separated this year, but next year we'll be
together again. And yeah, you know that that kind of
warm feeling of Christmas and a comforting feeling.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yeah, absolutely, Mickey Thomas, A Classic Christmas is out. It's
now streaming everywhere Amazon, and such great songs. We've got
the most wonderful time of the year, which is another
one of my favorites. I'll be home for Christmas. I mean,
it's like you picked the quitt essential set list if
you will, to put together for this album. Uh, and
(03:12):
what I want to know, because you know it's your
Your voice still sounds so great after all these years.
You have all those big starship hits. Obviously nothing's going
to stop us now and find your way back and
Jane and we built a city and all those But
this is obviously a softer approach. Is this is this harder?
Is it easier?
Speaker 1 (03:31):
How do you how do you look at a project
like this?
Speaker 3 (03:34):
It was it's easier on my voice, Yeah, Uh, it
was a kind of it was harder in the sense
that you really have to create a vibe, you know.
So so there was more in my mind of consciously
like laying back, slowing down, more air, you know, breathing more,
taking it down, you know, a step as far as
(03:54):
all the extreme high notes that I'm kind of known for,
I wanted to be in a little bit of a
lower kid, you know, kind of a breathier tone. So
it was easier on my voice, but it was harder
to kind of create that vibe, you know, the atmosphere
no worry to capture with this one.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Yeah, that definitely makes sense. Now, will you be doing
will you be doing any live shows around this or
is this for now, it's just a Christmas project and
maybe you'll do that in the future.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Well, yeah, right now it's new. You know, it's my
first Christmas album, so you know, we'll see how it does.
You know, hopefully it does well and people will enjoy
listening to it as much as I enjoyed making it.
And if that happens, like maybe next year, we'll we'll
plan a little some kind of a Christmas tour around it.
Around the Christmas you know, go out and do you know,
(04:41):
maybe fifteen twenty shows or something like that.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Yeah, it's fun, yeah, because it does seem like a
lot of people do that.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
They'll put one out and to be like, you know what,
I actually want to I want to tour with this
in the future.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
So that's good to know, yeah, because again, you know,
it's so much it's a different way of singing for me,
and it was kind of a kind of laid back
and kind of cool. But know what, of course, what
I would probably do if I were to do that
is do the Christmas album and then maybe do I
got to do like a half hour and forty five
minutes of the other stuff.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Too, you know, oh yeah, the other stuff the stuff
that you are. You are literally the soundtrack of my life.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Man. So I mean I.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Picked up picked up with you in pretty much in
eighty one. I think we'll find your way back and uh.
And it's so many great songs. And I've had a
chance to talk to you over the years, and I
always say, the song that should have been the biggest
hit of your career, I didn't mean to stay all night.
I still think that was underrated and underappreciated.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
But I love it.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
You know, I'm with you on that one. That was
you know, when you're when you're doing this, you know,
when you're recording and you're making songs, and you know
sometimes sometimes you'd know, like, well, this songs, this song
can't miss. Yes, that crosses your mind not very often,
but in the course of making that one, that was
a song that I always thought in the back of
my mind, like this this song, this is it man, Yeah,
(06:00):
this is it and uh and and you know, it
was a great song. Mutt Lang, of course, had his
hand in the production of that one. He produced my
vocal yes, uh. And he's one of the best in
the business at capturing an atmosphere A certain diban atmosphere
and so so yeah, I'm with you. That was probably
the biggest disappointment, oh, that I've had in my career
(06:23):
of a song that I really felt was gonna be
something special and it just didn't quite pan out for
whatever reason.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Well, I will tell you that if you do see
constant streams on that, you'll know it's probably from this
guy right here.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
So I'm cool.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
I still isn't doing a lot some other Uh Don't
Lose Any Sleep was another great UH song that I
that I was like, Man, that's because you just your vocals,
I mean, laying it on the line and no way
out and it's not over till it's over.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Tomorrow doesn't matter.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Tonight is kind of an off the off the beaten
paths song a little bit too, And then you have
all your number one songs, So I mean, is it
still fun for you to just go out and and
blast these songs out because people are probably singing every word?
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Absolutely it is. You know, I know that a lot
of artists that I read about her hear about you know,
get you know, sick of playing some of their songs
from from the past. You know that they've played a
thousand times and you know, I want to do only
new stuff for it. But you know I'm not like that,
you know, I like to I like to do the
(07:24):
songs live that I know are going to make I
guess I'm a people pleaser. I like to make people happy.
I know, for me, if I go to see an
artist that I love and they don't play the songs
they are my favorites, So you know that's going to
disappoint me.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
It's a bummer. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Yeah, And so the songs are still enjoyable to me
fresh because I just enjoy seeing the reaction. I enjoy
looking at seeing the people's faces when we play a
particular song that I know that they came to hear
and the joy that it brings to them, and it
keeps that keeps it fresh for me too.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Well you could tell when I saw you two years
ago you were still having a great time. Your band
is awesome. And will you be going out as Starship
for next year?
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Oh yeah, Okay, we're going to We're actually going to
in January, We're going to New Zealand and Australia for
a few shows, saying we're gonna we're gonna start a
year off riding twenty twenty five. So yeah, we'll be
out on the road. I expect we'll be doing oh
hopefully somewhere from fifty sixty seventy shows next year.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
That's amazing. That is amazing. Mickey.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
All right, before I let you go, we want everybody
to go check a classic Christmas It's out now with
Mickey Thomas. I'm going to I've got a ten second
clip I want to play for you. So my daughter,
my youngest daughter, Haley is twenty five. When she was one, okay,
twenty four years ago, she was fascinated with Sarah.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
So she would sing Sarah.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
All the time. And I have a clip of it
and then my wife asks her who it is and
you can hear the reaction. So I hope you can
hear this. I'm gonna play it for you.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Okay, here we go.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
Oh my god, there you go. That's so cool man.
I love that. You know, I thought you were going
to say built the city because I remember that for
some reason, little kids were always attracted to that song
even to this day. Like you know, when my grandson
was first born, when he was one or two years old,
(09:29):
he was singing, we built this city, so it's really
it's really interesting to hear Sarah. Yes, that that got her?
You know that is so cute.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Man.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Yeah, I just I thought, you know what, I'm talking
to Mickey. I got to play this and I got
her approval. She's in Boston. I got her approval and
she said, yeah, you can embarrass me.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Go ahead. Uh.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
I said, no, it's not embarrassing at all. You know,
tell her I love.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
That, Okay, I said, hell, you'll probably be flattered. I
think so.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
I am.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Mickey. It was so nice to talk to you.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Man.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
We're going to enjoy a classic Chris but hopefully everybody
will go out and listen to it and download it,
and we'll look forward to seeing Starship in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Thanks for talking man, you bet man.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Thanks a lot
I'm Jeff Stevens.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
It's my eighties show podcast, chatting with one of my
favorite rock vocalists, Mickey Thomas of Elvin Bishop back in
the day and so many decades with Starship. Mickey's got
a new classic Christmas album, Mickey.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
How are you?
Speaker 3 (00:13):
I'm good, Jeff, how are you.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Nice to talk to you again? Mickey.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
We've done several shows with you over the years and
love love hearing you play live, and man, those vocals
are still sounding awesome.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Oh thank you man. Yeah, I've been very for my
voice has been good to me.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
It has, and I definitely want to talk about some
of the things you've sung over the years. But I
was so excited to see that Mickey Thomas has your
first ever holiday release. It's a classic Christmas and man,
your voice sounds so good and I immediately went to
the Christmas song because that is my favorite and just sweet, sweet,
beautiful vocals.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Oh thank you very much man. You know, I'm real
happy with the record, happy with the way it turned out.
I've always wanted to do a Christmas album that I've
waited a long time, but I finally got the chance
to do it, and I'm real thrilled with it.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
The songs that you chose for the album just scream nostalgia.
Is that kind of what made you do it?
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Most? Definitely? I really wanted to capture the nostalgia and
the warmth of kind of a period gone by. You know.
I did songs that I remember listening to you when
I was a kid, when I was growing up, and
songs that I would hear my mom singing around the house.
And I wanted to do those kind of songs, and
I wanted to just keep kind of true to the
(01:27):
original arrangements, you know, the original vibe of the songs
and not you know, I don't like it when Christmas
songs get rocked up too much. I mean they should
be pure and you know, stick to the to the
way the song was originally intended. So I really tried
(01:47):
hard to do that.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Yeah, well you've definitely done it.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Chatting here with Mickey Thomas of Starship, A Classic Christmas
is now out and eight songs on there. So I'm
interested which one As you're thinking about these you know,
nostalgic titles, which one did you go for first? What
was the one You're like, Okay, I gotta do this
one first.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Yeah, the first song I recorded, which I think kind
of set the tone for the album, was have Yourself
a Merry Little Christmas Nice, And you know, that was
one and I wanted the whole album to kind of
have that nostalgic feel, that feeling of warmth, but that
one at the same time almost has a little bit
of a melancholy edge to it because I just remember
(02:29):
seeing Judy Garland and Meet Me in Saint Louis in
the window sill. You know, the first time that song
ever appeared was in the movie Meet Me in Saint Louis,
and she's singing to her little sister and trying to
comfort her and let her know that you were going
to be separated this year, but next year we'll be
together again. And yeah, you know that that kind of
warm feeling of Christmas and a comforting feeling.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yeah, absolutely, Mickey Thomas, A Classic Christmas is out. It's
now streaming everywhere Amazon, and such great songs. We've got
the most wonderful time of the year, which is another
one of my favorites. I'll be home for Christmas. I mean,
it's like you picked the quitt essential set list if
you will, to put together for this album. Uh, and
(03:12):
what I want to know, because you know it's your
Your voice still sounds so great after all these years.
You have all those big starship hits. Obviously nothing's going
to stop us now and find your way back and
Jane and we built a city and all those But
this is obviously a softer approach. Is this is this harder?
Is it easier?
Speaker 1 (03:31):
How do you how do you look at a project
like this?
Speaker 3 (03:34):
It was it's easier on my voice, Yeah, Uh, it
was a kind of it was harder in the sense
that you really have to create a vibe, you know.
So so there was more in my mind of consciously
like laying back, slowing down, more air, you know, breathing more,
taking it down, you know, a step as far as
(03:54):
all the extreme high notes that I'm kind of known for,
I wanted to be in a little bit of a
lower kid, you know, kind of a breathier tone. So
it was easier on my voice, but it was harder
to kind of create that vibe, you know, the atmosphere
no worry to capture with this one.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Yeah, that definitely makes sense. Now, will you be doing
will you be doing any live shows around this or
is this for now, it's just a Christmas project and
maybe you'll do that in the future.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Well, yeah, right now it's new. You know, it's my
first Christmas album, so you know, we'll see how it does.
You know, hopefully it does well and people will enjoy
listening to it as much as I enjoyed making it.
And if that happens, like maybe next year, we'll we'll
plan a little some kind of a Christmas tour around it.
Around the Christmas you know, go out and do you know,
(04:41):
maybe fifteen twenty shows or something like that.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Yeah, it's fun, yeah, because it does seem like a
lot of people do that.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
They'll put one out and to be like, you know what,
I actually want to I want to tour with this
in the future.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
So that's good to know, yeah, because again, you know,
it's so much it's a different way of singing for me,
and it was kind of a kind of laid back
and kind of cool. But know what, of course, what
I would probably do if I were to do that
is do the Christmas album and then maybe do I
got to do like a half hour and forty five
minutes of the other stuff.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Too, you know, oh yeah, the other stuff the stuff
that you are. You are literally the soundtrack of my life.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Man. So I mean I.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Picked up picked up with you in pretty much in
eighty one. I think we'll find your way back and uh.
And it's so many great songs. And I've had a
chance to talk to you over the years, and I
always say, the song that should have been the biggest
hit of your career, I didn't mean to stay all night.
I still think that was underrated and underappreciated.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
But I love it.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
You know, I'm with you on that one. That was
you know, when you're when you're doing this, you know,
when you're recording and you're making songs, and you know
sometimes sometimes you'd know, like, well, this songs, this song
can't miss. Yes, that crosses your mind not very often,
but in the course of making that one, that was
a song that I always thought in the back of
my mind, like this this song, this is it man, Yeah,
(06:00):
this is it and uh and and you know, it
was a great song. Mutt Lang, of course, had his
hand in the production of that one. He produced my
vocal yes, uh. And he's one of the best in
the business at capturing an atmosphere A certain diban atmosphere
and so so yeah, I'm with you. That was probably
the biggest disappointment, oh, that I've had in my career
(06:23):
of a song that I really felt was gonna be
something special and it just didn't quite pan out for
whatever reason.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Well, I will tell you that if you do see
constant streams on that, you'll know it's probably from this
guy right here.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
So I'm cool.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
I still isn't doing a lot some other Uh Don't
Lose Any Sleep was another great UH song that I
that I was like, Man, that's because you just your vocals,
I mean, laying it on the line and no way
out and it's not over till it's over.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Tomorrow doesn't matter.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Tonight is kind of an off the off the beaten
paths song a little bit too, And then you have
all your number one songs, So I mean, is it
still fun for you to just go out and and
blast these songs out because people are probably singing every word?
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Absolutely it is. You know, I know that a lot
of artists that I read about her hear about you know,
get you know, sick of playing some of their songs
from from the past. You know that they've played a
thousand times and you know, I want to do only
new stuff for it. But you know I'm not like that,
you know, I like to I like to do the
(07:24):
songs live that I know are going to make I
guess I'm a people pleaser. I like to make people happy.
I know, for me, if I go to see an
artist that I love and they don't play the songs
they are my favorites, So you know that's going to
disappoint me.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
It's a bummer. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Yeah, And so the songs are still enjoyable to me
fresh because I just enjoy seeing the reaction. I enjoy
looking at seeing the people's faces when we play a
particular song that I know that they came to hear
and the joy that it brings to them, and it
keeps that keeps it fresh for me too.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Well you could tell when I saw you two years
ago you were still having a great time. Your band
is awesome. And will you be going out as Starship
for next year?
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Oh yeah, Okay, we're going to We're actually going to
in January, We're going to New Zealand and Australia for
a few shows, saying we're gonna we're gonna start a
year off riding twenty twenty five. So yeah, we'll be
out on the road. I expect we'll be doing oh
hopefully somewhere from fifty sixty seventy shows next year.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
That's amazing. That is amazing. Mickey.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
All right, before I let you go, we want everybody
to go check a classic Christmas It's out now with
Mickey Thomas. I'm going to I've got a ten second
clip I want to play for you. So my daughter,
my youngest daughter, Haley is twenty five. When she was one, okay,
twenty four years ago, she was fascinated with Sarah.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
So she would sing Sarah.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
All the time. And I have a clip of it
and then my wife asks her who it is and
you can hear the reaction. So I hope you can
hear this. I'm gonna play it for you.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Okay, here we go.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
Oh my god, there you go. That's so cool man.
I love that. You know, I thought you were going
to say built the city because I remember that for
some reason, little kids were always attracted to that song
even to this day. Like you know, when my grandson
was first born, when he was one or two years old,
(09:29):
he was singing, we built this city, so it's really
it's really interesting to hear Sarah. Yes, that that got her?
You know that is so cute.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Man.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Yeah, I just I thought, you know what, I'm talking
to Mickey. I got to play this and I got
her approval. She's in Boston. I got her approval and
she said, yeah, you can embarrass me.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Go ahead. Uh.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
I said, no, it's not embarrassing at all. You know,
tell her I love.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
That, Okay, I said, hell, you'll probably be flattered. I
think so.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
I am.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Mickey. It was so nice to talk to you.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Man.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
We're going to enjoy a classic Chris but hopefully everybody
will go out and listen to it and download it,
and we'll look forward to seeing Starship in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Thanks for talking man, you bet man.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Thanks a lot
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