Juan Hernandez of the Dateline Downtown spoke with Eddie. Highlights from the interview appear below.
DD: You are one of the few personalities that have been in the radio business for over 30 years, alongside Howard Stern and Opie & Anthony. Did you ever think that doing a podcast would help bring in a bigger audience, knowing that you had helped build your own audience for the past three decades?
ET: I resisted a podcast for a long time just because I thought it would be redundant with two radio shows a week that I do. But, the company I am with, Podcast One, really sold me on the idea and fans kept asking. What I liked is that it was free, worldwide and on demand whenever you wanted it. The one downside of so many great radio things I have done over the decades is that unless you caught it over the air (or someone posts it on YouTube) it has a short shelf life. Podcast are archived so many last and grow as people discover them. That is exactly what has happened and the response has been great so far from iTunes and Podcast One.
DD: Living in the digital age, what are your thoughts on how U2 released their latest album Song of Innocence for free on iTunes? For anybody that has an iTunes account, the album was already pre-loaded onto their mobile devices, and was widely criticized.
ET: I love physical format. CDs are still my favorite way to get music. I also grew up working in a record store and miss them greatly. I know things chance and evolve but it sucks how free and disposable music seems to be now. U2 reinforced that with what they did. I get it was a huge marketing thing, but it sucks that a band that could have sold a rock album reinforced the idea paying for music is not a priority.
DD: You recently addressed a comment that KISS Bassist Gene Simmons made stating that “Rock is Dead,” and made it very clear that rock is not dead. Given the state that the music industry is in terms of album sales, touring cycles and the rise internet streaming, do you feel that rock will once again come back to mainstream audiences like it had been in the 1980s? Is social media an important tool now more than ever?
ET: I have no idea what the future holds for rock. But it is not dead. It is not as big as other genres of music but rarely has it been. I am very encouraged by the new bands out there right now with a focus on great riffs and vocals. Hope one breaks through. But the mega rock bands will always draw. AC/DC tours and everyone will still go. The question is when those bands end who fills the void?
DD: What are your plans for the remainder of 2014, going into 2015?
ET: I’m coming off my busiest travel summer ever. So, hopefully, wind down a little toward the end of the year outside of some scattered appearances. I will keep up with my radio shows and podcasts and then start looking at booking TMS end of the year for when we start up in 2015. I also want to develop something new for TV if I get a chance. I will always do TMS as long as VH1 wants to, but need to do more and have many opportunities. Just need the [right} partner to make it happen. Every day is a new adventure so that’s always cool. Never know what will pop up.
DD: Houston has grown into a very diverse city over the past couple of years. Any new bands or new music that you can recommend to our fellow Houstonians that you are currently listening or have listened to?
ET: Farmikos is my favorite new band. It features Joe Holmes who was with Ozzy. Also love this new band called Kyng. Those are two good new things I like.
Read Eddie’s entire interview with Dateline Downtown by clicking here.
source: datelinedowntown.com
44 Responses
Maybe a Peter Criss album like Mickey Hart will save rock and roll.
There will NEVER be another Van Halen, Sabbath, Priest, Kiss, etc because when those bands came out, they helped invent and sustain a genre of music…just like Elvis, Beatles, or Chuck Berry…today’s “genre” inventions are electronic music which didn’t exist years ago, but no band is laying the groundwork for anything new in metal or hard rock, or overall a new genre. Aside from electronic crap, a few years back we saw country take a real turn into pop and rock, so there is different variations of existing genres like black or death metal…still metal, just a new variation. Not to mention there was a lot of crazy shit going on in our world years ago, with major movements to inspire and write about back in the 60’s, 70’s, and before. Nowadays young people in their twenties don’t care about the world around them like I did when I was twenty. Music reflects the times..and in a world where the freakin Kardashians have a tv show, and their is like 20 music singing shows, this is what our music reflects today. The artist is not thriving, while manufactured garbage is…
Mnh has a great point about parents hating rock and now parents listen to rock. Well to be honest lol, GRANDPARENTS listen to rock. And thats not even counting the pre classic rock era . Like stones and the beatles. Pre 64. Lets never forget elvis and the 50s era. Since they kinda invented the whole thing.
I think Gene meant the old way of rock is dead. Meaning the album industry. The times they are a changing to quote a source. The children of the digital age don’t want or even need an album of hit singles. All they can take is one big hit and then it’s back to a medically induced xbox driven psychosis. So in the sense of what it was then rock is truly dead. But their are tons of new bands that can carry the torch forward. It’s just that this older generation bought albums and t-shirts and merch and the younger generation now no longer needs that. The best a band produces can be downloaded and watched on you tube from the safety of your ebola free bomb shelter/pot house. Now as far as new bands: Kobra and the lotus, scorpion child, Tragedian, Kamelot, Rival Sons, Primal Fear…etc…the list grows and grows. Get out there and listen to the new stuff. It’s not all doom and gloom. But forget album long plays or even massive sold out arena tours. Those days are dead but we can all look forward to 3 dimensional hologram iconic concerts by bands like kiss and maiden for the next 200 years. All available to download right into your cerebral cortex at precisely the right moment your xanax runs out. Enjoy the future of rock…long live the digital age! ANd oh yeah buy the new Witch Meadow Album out Black Friday on http://www.divebombrecords.com
I’m with Eddie on CD’s over digital and I buy all of my music at the local independent music store, not a retail store like Target/Walmart or Best Buy. To walk through the aisles and see all of that cover art and hear the obscure songs playing in a record store is an experience and it makes you appreciate music more. You can’t discover great music on a New Releases endcap at a retail store that focuses on Top 40. Regarding the whole U2 “free” album thing, the sole purpose of what they did was to get their new album heard by as many people as possible so they made a deal with Apple to let iTunes users get it free before it was released in stores. Bono specifically said that he didn’t believe in free music, and they did not give their album away free, Apple paid them for the rights to give it to their users. The whole thing was blown way out of context and it did no more to devalue music than torrents and all of the scumbags who operate hosting sites for full albums and those who take advantage rather than buying music and supporting the artists. As far as Gene’s “Rock is Dead” comment…he’s a money obsessed buffoon but he was clearly talking about the business side of it so of course to him Rock is Dead. The so-called “fans” are just as much to blame as anyone else though, for being sheep and letting the charts tell them what bands to follow, rather than paying more attention to new bands or obscure bands and helping to spread the word.