Poorman’s 15 Minutes of Fame: Jed the Fish Tribute
“I was amazed at the way he worked. First, there’s two things. I would watch his fingers when he was talking and his fingers would get all kinda spider like. It would play with the pots, which are the the volume controls on the board, and they were all over the board as he would talk. He would queue up records while talking. And the coolest thing that would just drive me nuts is he would wait so long before queuing up the next record.” — John Logic, Poorman's Special Guest Tribute show for Jed the Fish
Poorman’s 15 Minutes of Fame: Krista Montagna (Producer)
“So I think just subliminally, it just kind of led me down that road. I loved music, I loved film, and I ended up going that direction, you know? 1980s, I was watching MTV, and I was like who is this guy Russell Mulcahy that’s directing these Duran Duran videos, Billy Joel’s “Pressure” and [Duran Duran’s] “Rio” and all this stuff. And I was just like obsessed with it. So I went into production, you know, but I started in, multimedia. And it just kind of like led me in that direction.” — Krista Montagna, Poorman's 15 Minutes of Fame interview
Poorman’s 15 Minutes of Fame: Pearl Gates AKA Pearl Harbour (Pearl Harbor and the Explosions)
“Drivin’ was pretty big, not a Top 10, but it was a Top 100 Billboards recording in 1979. And yes, so Drivin’ was the biggest hit I’ve ever had and Pearl Harbor and Explosions was the most successful I ever was. But success does not mean fun or happiness. You know? So I was more all about fun and happiness.”
—Pearl Harbour, Poorman's 15 Minutes of Fame interview
Poorman’s 15 Minutes of Fame: Joe Puerta (Ambrosia)
“[On tribute bands] It's sort of a double-edged sword. You know? I think, it's it's kept it our music alive or helped revive it, but sometimes, you know, I feel like it's gotten to be so many tribute bands, you know, and it's gotten to be, like, almost over the top.”
—Joe Puerta, Poorman's 15 Minutes of Fame interview
Poorman’s 15 Minutes of Fame: Big Sono (Artist, producer, DJ)
“This is in my DNA. You know? It’s something that makes me happy. And, even when I try, just be like, I’m not doing this no more, like, many years ago, And I wake up depressed, and I’ll be like, I can’t do that. I gotta keep doing it. You know? So you get sometimes a little frustrated, but if you really love it, you’re gonna keep doing it.” — Big Sono, Poorman's 15 Minutes of Fame interview
Poorman’s 15 Minutes of Fame: Patrick O’Neal (Sportscaster, actor)
“KROQ was one of our stations growing up for sure! So love alternative rock, grew up a Rock & Roll fan, right? Whether it was Led Zeppelin, Beatles, Stones, The Who, Hendrix, Cream - those were my bands kinda growing up. Love Rush, love all kinds of music, for sure. So KROQ was a station that I had on all the time.” — Patrick O’Neal, Poorman's 15 Minutes of Fame interview
Poorman’s 15 Minutes of Fame: Alison Martino (Writer, television producer, historian)
“[About her Facebook page, followed by 630K] You know, I didn’t call it Vintage Hollywood for a reason. I called it Vintage Los Angeles. Because it’s about the people, everybody, and structures and architecture and restaurants and destinations, historic places.” — Alison Martino, Poorman's 15 Minutes of Fame interview
Poorman’s 15 Minutes of Fame: Clem Burke (Blondie drummer)
“[Favorite Blondie song] Actually, my personal favorite is our first single “X Offender” which is also an homage to the Phil Spector Wall of Sound, Wrecking Crew sound. I was trying to emulate the drums of Hal Blaine on that record. And also Richard Gottehrer producing was a product of the Brill Building and also very much influenced by that whole thing we’re talking about- Spector, etcetera. So, to this day, the song “X Offender” is actually my favorite song. It has very great meaning for me, you know? Kinda got our foot in the door.”
— Clem Burke, Poorman's 15 Minutes of Fame interview
Poorman’s 15 Minutes of Fame: Daniel Zormeier, Chewbacca stunt double
“You know, I am not a person that is intimidated by people who have fame, money, or anything like that. And maybe it’d be different if I was President of the United States, but I have my doubts. I’m just kind of a regular guy, and I meet people, and I kinda take them at face value and make my judgments as I get to know them. So I put up everybody pretty much on equal footing and then you either go up or down on that footing, depending on how we get along.”
— Daniel Zormeier, Chewbacca stunt double, Poorman's 15 Minutes of Fame interview
Poorman’s 15 Minutes of Fame: John Easdale (Dramarama frontman)
“[About former drummer, Clem Burke, who passed the day before this interview] No. He was our drummer. He was just the best drummer ever. I was saying before, I went to see Blondie because I liked Debbie Harry, but I left the concert in love with Clem Burke because he was just the greatest drummer I ever saw. I couldn’t believe it when he joined our band.”
— John Easdale, Dramarama. Poorman's 15 Minutes of Fame interview
Poorman’s 15 Minutes of Fame: Paul Cowsill (The Cowsills, vocals & drums)
“I think there’s a movie or a documentary in it- the phenomenon of our audience and then all of us singers and bands, you know, we’re still doing it and the people just keep coming and coming. You know, we do this Happy Together Tour every summer. This will be our 11th summer in a row where we do between 55 and 60 shows within 2.5 months, and the crowds are crazy. We thought the Happy Together tour was going to be over two years ago just due to attrition, the audience just kind of fading. But we’re not fading, we are filling these places up with all of our people.”
— Paul Cowsill, Poorman’s 15 Minutes of Fame interview
Poorman’s 15 Minutes of Fame: Monique Powell (Save Ferris frontwoman)
“We’re launching a tour and a new single on April 25. The song is called “Get Dancing” and we’re reaching out to all our fans to go on our YouTube and learn the choreography and be in the video with us. We’re filming the week of April 14 in Los Angeles. So yeah. It’s just I really want as many people as possible to learn the choreography and be in the video with me. And, I think it’s gonna be really cool. And then April 25, we launch this tour, and we’re just going everywhere.”
— Monique Powell, 15 Minutes of Fame interview
Poorman’s 15 Minutes of Fame: Blag Dahlia (The Dwarves frontman)
“You know, man, we cut a wide swath through this mockery known as the music business. We always tried to maintain a sense of humor. We wound up sticking around a lot longer than people thought we would, and we’ve made 16 records, you know. We got our own label and, you know, as the years went on, we’d add more and more crazy people to the mix that you wouldn’t expect. You know, Nick Oliveri came in from the Kyuss crew and Josh Freese came in. He’s now in the Foo Fighters and, you know, there’d be all kinds of great players and interesting songwriters, you know, but we were always kinda known for that just kernel of insanity.” — Blag Dahlia, 15 Minutes of Fame interview
Poorman’s 15 Minutes of Fame: Alice Bag (Punk rock singer & author)
Well, my book, Violence Girl: From East LA Rage to Hollywood Stage, a Chicana Punk Story, it starts off with my childhood and it gets into how I got into music, got into punk rock. But then beyond that, it also it goes into, like, my whole family life and how my relationship with my father shaped my world view really, really shaped me because it turned me into a feminist. My father was abusive and, not to me, but to my mother. But, growing up in that situation really feeling powerless as a child made me, want to grow up to be someone who stands up to bullies and especially men who bully women. So, , you know, I I find plenty to do because we live in a patriarchy, so there's always that fight that motivates me.
— Alice Bag, Poorman’s 15 Minutes of Fame interview
Poorman’s 15 Minutes of Fame: Gary Usher, Jr. (Rock guitarist)
“[About his Dad, Gary Usher, rock musician, songwriter, and record producer, working with The Byrds, The Beach Boys, Dick Dale, The Super Stocks, The Hondells in the 1960s] He’s helping you find your vision, tweaking the sound. Another thing was, the music- the technology, was changing so much. You’re talking four track, eight track, 16 track. My dad at Wally Heider, up in San Francisco, Sausalito area, was the first guy to really take two eight track machines and then you’re starting to really stack vocals and add instrumentation that hadn’t been done six months before and it never went back. It just continued to climb that way.”
— Gary Usher, Jr., 15 Minutes of Fame interview
Poorman’s 15 Minutes of Fame: Billy Shire (Wacko, Soap Plant, La Luz de Jesus Gallery)
“[How did it all start?] Well, primarily, it boils down to soap. We started with soap. My mother and I started the soap store. I did leather in the back and we had my brother's ceramics. It became kind of a pop culture emporium, you know. I call it a pop culture gift shop on steroids and it's got besides gifts and things, it does have a major amount of books, it has the art gallery. So, you know, it's really developed over the years from just having soap to having a little bit of everything, and I like to think of it as my interpretation of the best of each genre, so to speak.”
— Billy Shire, 15 Minutes of Fame interview
Poorman’s 15 Minutes of Fame: Mark Goodman (MTV VJ, actor, author)
“[In 1981] I was thrilled. I was working in radio in New York at the number one rock station in New York. I moved up here to New York to take that gig. And within six months, I was so bored and so disgusted. I was looking for any way to get out. And luckily, this friend of mine from Philly Radio where I'm from, where I worked before, called and said, hey, there's this company. I don't know, they're doing something like a 24-hour video channel or something. Maybe you wanna check them out. And the rest is rock history.”
— Mark Goodman, 15 Minutes of Fame interview