TAGQ (That's A Good Question)

Ben Johnston talks to his father Scott about improv comedy, forestry and landscaping, as well as computing, cooking, and music, and whatever else these characters are interested in.

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TAGQ (That's A Good Question)

Episode 50!! Pinto Armrest Art

May 27, 2026 • Ben Johnston & Scott Johnston • Episode 50

0:00 | 40:54

We trade college stories and current-life updates with Scott’s old roommate Bones, then veer into what arbitration really is and why it feels nothing like TV courtroom drama. The conversation zigzags through 1970s music, knees that will not cooperate, California’s complicated history, whale spouts in Bodega Bay, and a limo job that ends with a rock star reveal.
• turning a busted Pinto armrest into framed “art” and what people project onto it
• what an arbitrator does and why “private judge” is the simplest definition
• why arbitration rarely produces funny stories and the one oath moment that lands
• a college job selling “half a cow” and the slogan that still kills
• testing 1970s song lyrics knowledge and arguing about deep cuts
• a Whidbey Island weekend with matcha French toast and brunch nostalgia
• knee injury mysteries, torn meniscus talk, and getting back to running
• plant breeding history, diversity, and uncomfortable ties to eugenics in California
• whales spouting in Bodega Bay and the fine art of prattling
• a “Joe Garcia” limo pickup that turns into a Steve Perry story
You need an arbitrator, give Bones a call.

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Pinto Armrest Becomes Wall Art

Ben 0:00

Yeah. That Joe Garcia is he's no Garrison Keeler, that's for sure.

Bones 0:10

That's probably one of the nicest things we could have said.

Ben 0:13

Yeah, yeah, you know that's me, me and Admit Ben. Here we go. Greetings.

Scott 0:34

Good morning, Ben. Wow, there are two faces. Yeah. I guess we're not organized in the logical order. Groundbreaking. Yeah, it is.

Ben 0:48

This is Hi Ben. I'm Bones. Hi Bones. I know you. I know. I know we've met, but uh it's it's been a long time.

Bones 0:59

Yeah, and I I told Scott I had worked up about a 15-minute introduction for myself. Perfect.

Ben 1:07

Wow. All right. Go go for it. Yeah, it's kidding. Yeah.

Scott 1:13

I think.

Bones 1:15

Do you want me to start at first grade or should I move right on to Junior Hall? Just skip right on to your guest of Scott and Benz. Scott and I were roommates in college. I have some, I can reveal some skeletons if people want. Um, discover when living with Scott that he's the aficionado of fine art, and that's a whole story of its own.

Ben 1:43

Whoa. I've never heard my dad described as a aficionado of capital A art. Of anything. Well, but that's just maybe it's just because it was the waters I swam in growing up. I didn't even know how to appreciate it.

Bones 2:01

Beautiful. Well, the fine art, you know what I'm talking about with the fine art, don't you? The art in our apartment. Oh, yeah, okay. We we had no art in our apartment, and it was really lacking.

Scott 2:14

Our house.

Bones 2:15

Yeah, in our house when we were in college. So we had a picture frame, but we had no picture. So we could put the picture frame over this on the wall over the fireplace. Over the fireplace, but all you saw was the wall behind the picture frame. Yeah. So Scott had the brilliant idea because his pinto was falling apart every time we stepped into it. He pulled an armrest off of the pinto. It fell off. Oh okay. And we mounted that on the wall inside the picture frame, and that became the only piece of art we had in the house. Yeah, it was it was at an angle. I you guys didn't know jack shit about hanging an armrest. I had to come and do that. I mean, they wanted to put it horizontal to the floor. I mean, who does that?

Ben 3:19

Oh, he was he was the visionary, and you were the uh I I was like just a touch. Yeah, yeah.

Scott 3:27

Okay, yeah. The creative director. Yes, and then Eric, who is on podcast 48? Oh, by the way, this is podcast 50.

Ben 3:40

Wow, 50 right episode. Let's get the sound bing bing bing bing. Justin, can you turn on the horns? Justin's our sound guy who lives under my desk.

Bones 3:55

Oh, nice. Yeah. What else can you do under your desk?

Scott 4:00

But uh to finish the story of the armrest.

Ben 4:03

Moves my outlets, you know. Like the phone ball. Yeah. Take the computer out, put the phone in. Okay.

Scott 4:10

Eric's sister walked into our apartment and saw this armrest hanging over the the uh fireplace framed, and she goes, and she's an she was an artist, made a living living as a commercial artist, and she goes, That's God.

Bones 4:31

Well do you think she would have said that if the armrest was horizontal to the floor? I've never, you know, bones.

Scott 4:39

I've never thought about that. Yeah, so yeah, important.

Ben 4:46

It is what it is, you know.

Scott 4:48

It was what it was, and no one took a picture of it with their iPhone cameras, so we have no record of it. Well, yeah, not that part, yeah.

Bones 4:59

Yeah, we we did that intentionally.

Scott 5:02

I don't think we have a sing I don't have a single photograph from that house. No, nobody had a you didn't have did that intentionally.

Ben 5:09

You said no photographs, yeah.

Bones 5:11

Oh, we just there were a lot of opportunities. People I I know National Geographic wanted to do a whole spread on it, but we wouldn't allow it.

Ben 5:19

Yeah, but you had to like have a meeting, say what, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Scott 5:23

Well, back then the iPhones were about the size of a water cooler, and you know, not everybody had one. But we had that that joke, that joke didn't work.

Ben 5:37

Yeah, no, no, I yeah, yeah. I did have to think about it because I as soon as you said water cooler, I just had a had a cooler in mind. I'm like, we were talking about iPhones. Yeah, I goofed. I goofed it. Okay, I get it now. I get it. You can't carry around a computer in the 70s.

Scott 5:53

I meant an ice chest and I said water cooler, so that ruined the whole joke. Oh yeah, I was lost.

Ben 6:00

Yeah, oh that, yeah, that you fucked that up. Yeah.

Arbitrator Versus Arborist Confusion

Ben 6:05

Last time I think I was in the same room as you, Bones. I think you were talking about being on a limo driver.

Bones 6:14

Oh, yeah. I've had an illustrious career, yeah, yeah.

Ben 6:19

Were you a lawyer before that, though?

Bones 6:21

Yeah, I still am.

Ben 6:25

Okay, so you're a limo driver.

Bones 6:29

He couldn't find it, so it's it stayed in there. Yeah. But I'm a covered.

Scott 6:37

You're a recovering lawyer, yes. Okay, okay. Now he's uh let me get this right. He's an arbitrator. Don't call him a mediator because he'll he'll get pissed.

Ben 6:51

Yeah, arborist. Wow, you climb trees? He's an arborist.

Bones 6:56

Yeah, I'm an arborist. There is nobody better at climbing trees than I am. I I barely can climb into bed.

Scott 7:04

So but did when we lived together, did you have the upper or lower bunk bed?

Bones 7:10

Lower. Okay, there's no way I'm getting to an upper, there's no way anyone would sleep in a bed where I was in the bed above them. That would be dangerous. So, no, I was clearly lower.

Ben 7:26

No, so not a tree climber. Yeah, not an arborist, perhaps.

Bones 7:30

No, I am not, I am not an arborist.

Ben 7:36

You're an arbitrator.

Bones 7:38

Yeah, that's I'm an arbitrator, not an arborist.

Scott 7:43

If if you were doing maybe this is maybe this is the good question. Maybe Ben's got a better one coming. Okay. But if you were gonna do stand-up comedy based on your arbitration, do you have a do you have a bit you can do? Like I you I know you can't reveal anything. There's whatever HIPAA or whatever.

Bones 8:06

I was in a here though. Rarely does anything funny ever happen in an arbitration. Okay. Um one person my one attorney, she put her witness up on the witness stand and said, You work for Alina? And she said, Yes, I do. And how long have you worked for Alina? 14 years. And do you enjoy your job? Now remember, you're under oath. And and that's the that's the most amusing thing I can think of. It's not a it's it's not a reparing kind of job.

Ben 8:48

Okay, I'm gonna ask you to define two words. The first one is the fourth to last word you just said, and also arbitrator.

Bones 9:00

Arbitrator. And what was the other word?

Ben 9:07

It's not a pay back.

Bones 9:09

Yeah.

Ben 9:10

She said it's not a blank kind of job.

Bones 9:13

Rip roaring. Rip, I think rip rip roaring. Got it, got it.

Ben 9:17

Rip roaring. Okay. So what's the one?

Bones 9:19

Rip roaring as well.

Ben 9:24

Yes. Okay.

Bones 9:25

Arbitrator is just a private judge. So two parties have decided that they have a contract, and when they have a dispute over what that contract provision provides, and they can't resolve it themselves, they bring that issue to a third party and they will make a decision on what that provision means.

Scott 9:46

So it's it's driven by contractual law.

Ben 9:49

Yeah. So you're the guy in the sitcom that sits at the head of the conference table while the two characters that are getting a divorce sit next to their lawyers.

Bones 9:58

Yeah, right, right. I'm okay. Good. I'm the one they're supposed to suck up to. I think a lot of the times they're having trouble recognizing that you're sucking up to me here.

Ben 10:12

That sounds like a pretty rip-roaring job to me, but that's just yeah, that's just Hollywood to me. Yeah, yeah.

Meat Slogans And Self Sponsorship

Bones 10:22

Not quite as good as the job I had in college. I don't know if you know this, Scott, but I had a job working for Blue Ribbon Foods. Do you remember Blue Ribbon Foods? They made ice cream. No, Blue Ribbon Foods, that's Blue Bunny. Okay, Blue Ribbon Foods sold half a cow. You know, we would sell a half a cow on the phone, calling people up, trying to set up an appointment. And those I didn't know this.

Ben 10:52

Yeah, I was a salesperson for and their slogan.

Bones 10:57

The the best part about this company was their slogan. The best meat you ever thaw. I did, I did with a straight face. I've never heard that.

Ben 11:18

I there's a there's a meat shop halfway to destinations in eastern Washington called Owen's Meats, and their slogan is you cannot beat our meat. Wow, yeah, that's that's I have a friend that walks around with that on his shirt.

Bones 11:39

Really?

Ben 11:40

Yeah, all right. That's bold, Lewis.

Bones 11:43

Then I think he needs the t-shirt from the gas station. Either pump and munch or come and go.

Scott 11:52

That's a whole that's a whole episode right there. Yeah. Yeah, his his birthday's coming up. We'll do that.

Ben 12:01

Um there was something a little bit.

Bones 12:08

Oh, our I was thinking of maybe it's not the the arbitrator anymore. Um, can I just do a little ad? If you're in need of an arbitrary, please. We can sponsor this.

Scott 12:20

We can advertise what what how do they get a hold of you? You could be the ad today. We'll support you. Yeah, actually, yeah.

Ben 12:29

I mean, now that the the advertiser would actually be in our midst, uh-huh. Yeah, we want to make sure that contractually, especially with someone that actually understands how that works. This could this podcast could end real fast if we if we mess this up right now.

Scott 12:46

Yeah, oh yeah, we're gonna lose all our revenue. You might lose your listeners.

Ben 12:51

Yeah, what's yeah.

Scott 12:52

Why would I want to take away Bones Aldman as my mediator?

Bones 12:57

Well, say you had an issue with 70 song lyrics. Okay you needed somebody well versed in 70 song lyrics. Well, right away, I'm the person.

Scott 13:09

People are arguing over what this lyrics means, yeah, and they're about to whatever, break up the company or get divorced. Yeah, okay.

Bones 13:17

There really isn't other than that any real special talent I have, so anybody could do the role.

Ben 13:23

So for driving limos.

Bones 13:25

Yeah. I can tell that's my my brush with fame story.

Ben 13:30

Yeah, right. I will I was thinking about that. But before that, good you if we 70 song lyrics, we should like I I think we need to confirm this. No, you're gonna song bands. Where are some deep cups? I've been well, this might be I don't know. I've got other lyrics, just say the name of the song. I just recently discovered this artist from the mid-70s, and I it feels like discovering like Jimi Hendrix for the first time, so I don't know how well known he is. His name is Ted Lucas. Is this old news? Ted Lucas? Ted Lucas. I think these albums he did like two incredible albums that just got re-released, I think. I really think they might have been buried the time. They just came out on Jack White's record label.

unknown 14:24

Okay.

Scott 14:24

Have you ever heard of him? No. But if Jack White endorsed him, it's worth listening to. Yeah.

Ben 14:34

Uh no lyrics from Ted Lucas.

Scott 14:37

I don't know Ted Lucas. Okay, failed the first test.

Ben 14:40

Okay.

Scott 14:41

Let's pick another one. Like what one of those songs from you know Guardians of the Galaxy?

Ben 14:47

Rubber Bandman. Rubber Bandman, Rubber Bandman. I don't even know if it's just a feel like something anything for just one man. Who the artist?

Scott 15:02

Who knows?

Bones 15:03

Who knows?

Scott 15:04

How about that Chicago one?

Bones 15:06

That song about Back when my hair was short.

Scott 15:09

No, the Lakeside Drive song. You mean the night Chicago died? No, not that one. But but come on, show off some lyrics. No. I put them in a spot. I can't remember. How did Chicago die?

Bones 15:26

There was shouting in the street and the sound of running feet. And I heard someone who said about a hundred cops of debt. I heard my mama cry. I heard pray the night Chicago died. Brother Wanna Night It really was. Brother Wanna Fight, it really was. That's enough. Yeah, that's yeah, that's that's a really upbeat song. Oh, yeah.

Ben 15:53

I remember you answered that question well. That was good. Thank you. Was Boston from the 70s? Yeah, but I wasn't how familiar are you with their catalog?

Bones 16:05

I remember I remember Boston. I'm sure if somebody mentioned a Boston song, they all sounded alike. Boston, one song, and they repeated it with several several different sets of but the more than a feeling, you know.

Scott 16:18

More than a feeling. Yeah. I'm more bubble gummy than that. Bubble gummy, okay. Yeah.

Bones 16:28

You come on, the dream, peaches, and cream, lips, likes, drop everyone.

Ben 16:33

Oh wow, yeah, okay. Yeah, beautiful.

Bones 16:36

And you're my own.

Scott 16:38

I think that song's been casting.

Bones 16:39

That's Ringo. That's Ringo Star, isn't it?

Scott 16:43

What was he? 17 when he was singing that talk?

Bones 16:45

He was post that was after he left after after the Beatles broke off.

Ben 16:50

Yeah, he he went in a different direction.

Bones 16:52

Yeah, he sure did.

Ben 16:56

Nice. All right, so arbitrator. You need an arbitrator, give bones a call.

Bones 17:01

Yeah, please do. Okay.

Ben 17:03

Yeah. And it doesn't have to be just 1970s lyrics, I imagine.

Scott 17:07

No, no, I I could brand out things. I think you have other things. Yeah.

Whidbey Trip And Matcha French Toast

Scott 17:14

How you doing, Ben? I'm good. That's not like a normal podcast question, I know. No, that's not a good question. Bad, bad.

Ben 17:28

That's that's bad. I'm good. No, I had a really good week. I uh went to Whidby this last couple of days.

Scott 17:38

Um celebrated.

Ben 17:40

Whidby Island is where I lived when I first moved to Washington. Lived there for a few years before we're moving to Seattle, like a year and a half ago. So I have lots of friends there. Celebrating a friend's birthday. They just bought a house. I got Fremotch of French toast because it was a friend's last day working at a brunch shop. Same brunch restaurant that you and I, dad, and mom and your friend Bob Fitch, yeah, and his wife all went to. Okay, however many years ago. Second time I've ever been to this restaurant. And we know the manager, but it was her last day yesterday. And she gave us free mimosas, matcha French toast, fried chicken. It was good.

Scott 18:28

When you say matcha French toast, you mean it's made of what's matcha?

Ben 18:34

It's just a pile of green tea powder. That's what the dish was. Matcha equals green tea powder. There's so there's different green teas, and you can have matcha-grade green tea. And that I don't actually know exactly how they process it, but it's a it's like an ancient thing dates way back in Japan, but you like pulverized leaves and you like make a really, really strong green tea with matcha.

Scott 19:01

So you had caffeinated French toast.

Ben 19:04

Yeah, caffeinated. Yeah, we did. Yeah, yeah. And has this like earthy almost, but also sort of like sweet and creamy taste to it. Yeah. Matcha lattes are like they've been a big thing for the last number of years. Oh, I know. Yo, you know. Yeah. Amazing ex-benedict. Gonna have to send mom the picture.

Bones 19:24

Well, I think that's on tap for us today.

Scott 19:27

Mom's ex Benedicts are happening after this podcast.

Ben 19:31

Nice. Yeah, and once once the production company clears out of the kitchen, then Yeah, something like that.

Scott 19:38

And mom will turn on the blender. Yeah. Once she stops working on the jigsaw puzzle.

Knee Injuries And Basketball Memories

Ben 19:45

I also went to the doctor lately. Oh, good. Recently. That's and I got I got a got a prescription for my knee finally. And he was like, Well, it hasn't hurt for a while, so you should probably just hurt it again, and then you can come see me, and then we can decide what to do next. I'm like, Cool. All right. So green flag to just go go injure yourself. Go crazy.

Scott 20:10

What did you do to injure yourself?

Ben 20:13

In high school, I injured it playing football. And I went to the sports medicine doctor and everything. And it was a weird injury, kind of mystifying for like PT and sports med docs. Because I would go in and they'd do MRIs and they'd try to recreate the in like the pain in the office, but it just like never really worked. And then I'd go home. MRI showed nothing. And I would go home and like go for runs, and like I'd get 10 minutes in, and then it would just be back, and it'd be like a searing pain. Like I couldn't, yeah. Extremely painful. And then I just was never able to figure it out. So I just like got scared of running. And slowly over the years I've been getting back into it, but I'm still really worried about it.

Bones 21:05

I got scared of running, I've stayed away from that.

Ben 21:07

Yeah. Bones is good physical therapy appointments lately.

Scott 21:15

Bones needs ones.

Bones 21:16

Yeah, I I just was they just found torn meniscus in my knee, but seems to be getting better.

Ben 21:23

So oh, they just stumbled upon that.

Bones 21:27

I I was walking up some steps in a basketball arena, and all of a sudden it just ouched. And I couldn't I there were no railings, and so now I gotta walk down a staircase without being able to take any weight off because there's no railing.

Scott 21:42

Is this at Williams Williams Arena? You say you uh seeing the U of M play basketball?

Bones 21:48

Yeah, it was a University of Minnesota against Indiana, not a very favorable outcome for the Gulf.

Scott 21:55

Remember when we had season tickets? Yeah. We used to play all in college. Yeah, we saw a pretty good team. We saw Magic Johnson play. Yeah. When he was still in Michigan.

Bones 22:09

And the golfers in 82 won the Big Ten. So they were a good basketball team. Trent Tucker. Kevin McHale was already gone by then. Damn.

Ben 22:22

Back in the day. You were a basketball fan, Dad.

Scott 22:27

No, I had a roommate who said, hey, let's all get nice. Let's all get season tickets.

Ben 22:32

Cool. Mom took me to a me and Adam to a Stanford basketball game like 15 years ago or something.

Bones 22:40

Stanford used have really good basketball. Who's the guy? The kind of big white guy. Redundant, probably with Stanford basketball, but mad me or the mad can't I don't know.

Ben 22:58

We don't know.

Scott 22:59

We don't know. We don't know.

Ben 23:01

Ask mom. She loves Stanford Bass.

Scott 23:03

Yeah, yeah. Ben's mom is the real true sports fan. We find out.

Ben 23:08

She'll yeah, she'll go. You ask her 99. Who is who is on that Stanford team? And she'll just put those players.

Scott 23:20

Okay, she's not that kind of fan.

Plant Breeding And Eugenics History

Ben 23:24

I've been reading about the eugenicists of California back then.

Scott 23:28

Yeah, go Stanford.

Ben 23:29

Yeah, exactly. That's why there's a bunch of big white guys on the team.

Scott 23:33

Yes, they thought.

Ben 23:36

Yeah. Yeah. They're breeding children over there right here. Still do it.

Scott 23:44

The Termin, whatever experiment where the I don't know if he was president of Stanford at the time, but he was breeding children at some point to like prove early eugenics was real.

Ben 23:55

Jesus Christ, dude. Like, God. No, it's because I've been learning about chestnut breeding on the West Coast. And so a lot of the plant early West Coast plant breeders were either very adjacent to the eugenics movement or like smack dab in the middle of it and like actually, you know, hanging out with whatever that guy, David Jordan Starr, whatever the Burbank was a eugenicist. Yeah, Burbank was like full-blown eugenicist. And then he then there were just other plant breeders that obviously were in the same sphere, but because they believed as they were hybridizing the plants, like, oh, this is better or worse stuff applies to humans.

Bones 24:35

What's good for the fern is good for the human.

Scott 24:38

Well, like the white people are the hybrid that's superior. That's the whole thing about eugenists, right?

Ben 24:44

Yeah. Yeah. And intellectually it was they were pretty stupid, actually. The most successful plant breed well, I don't know. I don't know enough about it, but most successful plant breeders were actually ones that prioritized diversity over like trying to pick the best already existing cultivars. So that's interesting. Tomato. The Santa Lomas of the Right. And then it just connects to all the old California money. And like this, these are like the progenitors of like early California and white America and on the West Coast. So that's really interesting. And then I started seeing connections to like that farm I worked at in Central California and Mendocino. Yeah. And like I like you could start making these loose connections to like even like you know, the Grateful Dead or like stuff like that. Oh my. I mean, no, that's not to say all indirect connections, of course. Right. But it's like California is kind of seen as this like promised land in many different sort of movements and things.

Scott 25:50

It's also known for like industrializing agriculture or or or like the raisin commodity. It's like they were like a organized crime that said everybody's gonna sell the raisins through us, you know, whatever the raisin is, sun, sun made, sun something. And they used violence to like discourage people who didn't want to sell their raisins through Sunmade. But anyway, that's yeah, yeah.

Ben 26:18

I mean, there's a lot of I mean it's it's a wild one.

Scott 26:21

Well, you're saying California sucks. Is that what you're saying?

Ben 26:24

That is not. Okay. I said it has a complex and important history.

Scott 26:29

Wow, that was very wow, very uh smooth.

Ben 26:33

Very, very, very diplomatic,

Bodega Bay Whales And Prattle

Ben 26:36

yeah. Yeah, and then and then I looked at your location because you're at Bones' house, right? In Bodega Bay.

Bones 26:45

Yeah, yeah. I wish it was my house. My house for a month.

Ben 26:49

Oh, really? Oh, yeah. Is it a timeshare?

Bones 26:53

Just a rental.

Scott 26:54

Oh got it, got it. But we can stare and see the whales sprouting. Sprouting? Spouting. Sprouting, yeah.

Ben 27:02

Those whales, they're they've just given up. They're starving so much. We're just gonna be plants now. Just become kelp.

Bones 27:10

Uh-huh. Wow, do you see the photosynthesis coming out of that one? Sometimes that happens.

Ben 27:18

You're actually seeing like blow, blow spouts.

Bones 27:21

I have a few times this trip, but you see the spray, and occasionally you'll see a little bit of black behind the spray, so you can the back is coming out of the water. Cool.

Ben 27:32

Hey, I guess it is that time of year.

Scott 27:34

Yeah, yeah. I'm gonna go grab my phone so I can do the the timing trick at the end, you know? So cool. You guys keep talking for a moment and I'll be right back. Put the pressure on Scott.

Bones 27:48

Yeah, yeah. It'll just be a second. You're in Seattle?

Ben 27:54

I'm in Seattle. Well, uh to Ted Lucas lyric is I went all the way up to Seattle where the women like to prattle.

Bones 28:04

And what does that what does that mean? What does prattle mean? I sounds good.

Ben 28:08

Okay, I gotta I like women who prattle, I think, but it was actually funny and a song about how much he loves California, and he like went all over the country and was just like, nope, I gotta make it back to California.

Bones 28:25

I have no idea.

Ben 28:26

Talking at length about unimportant matters in a foolish, childish, or inconsequential way. It's a verb. She tended to prattle on about her neighbor's business for hours. Wow. Yes, it's yeah, yeah, yeah. That was that was Google AI that did that. So we can officially cancel them now. Thank God, finally. This is this is what's gonna set them over the edge. This is what's gonna set the AI.

Bones 28:57

I think that definition of Pradle is pretty much this what I do all day.

Ben 29:03

Yeah, yeah. I mean that is kind of what we're doing here, right? Yeah.

Limo Driving For Joe Garcia

Ben 29:12

I I am curious about hearing your uh your brush with fame. Okay, because I remember hearing about it. I I told him. I've heard some developments with the particular you know personally famous person. Well, not any develop. Yeah, not developments, but I remember like around the same time I heard the story from you. I was watching TV and he was at the baseball games.

Bones 29:38

And it was probably around 2015 or 2016, Memorial Day weekend, and I got a limo assignment to pick up God, Joe.

Ben 29:54

Wasn't it like Garcia? I think.

Bones 29:56

Yeah, Joe Garcia. I was to pick up Joe Garcia at the airport. I had my little sign near the baggage claim with Joe Garcia's name on it. He comes down. I said, Shall we grab your bags? He goes, I don't have any bags. He had just a little little kind of duffel bag that he was carrying. We go to the car, he says, I want to listen to music. I can't listen to any news. I said, Okay, that's fine. So we put on some music on the radio and we take off the stretch limo. No, nope. He didn't he didn't bite on the stretch limo. This he wasn't going look look what he got as a as a limo driver. You knew he wasn't going top drawer. So he wanted to see three things. He wanted to go to a hotel that was near the airport, he wanted to see a hotel in downtown St. Paul, and he wanted to see theater, a live theater that is in downtown St. Paul called the Fitzgerald Theater. So I explained the logistics. I said it makes most sense to go to the hotel nearby first. We'll go, then we'll go into St. Paul, see those other venues. We get to the hotel. I've never seen this hotel as busy as it was. Turns out they were there was an AA convention going on. I have not believed the number of motorcycles in that parking lot. Apparently, that's a good combination. Drinking and motorcycles. Yeah, yeah, that's yeah, that's a healthy one. So, or maybe stop drinking and motorcycles is what I'm saying.

Ben 31:26

Yeah, they don't get into biking until afterwards. Now I can't that's what I've heard.

Bones 31:30

Yeah. So I drop him off. He tells me he he's a little nervous about something. He wants to go visit a friend, but he wants my car right at the door when he leaves because he doesn't want kind of any anything stirred up by him leaving. I didn't know what that meant, but having a car where he wanted it was no problem. So he comes, he leaves the hotel within a half hour and meets me. Uh, we chat, and his friend was with him, an 85-year-old guy, not very cool. This guy was about 60 years old, and you could tell he had a little cool to him, but yeah, you know, but short hair, not not long hair or anything. We get into the car, and his friend now calls him on his cell phone and said, Joe, I don't think he said Joe. He probably wasn't in on the rouge, but he said that woman you saw in the hotel, she got in her car and she might be following you guys. So he says, Is anybody following us? We're on a major freeway in the twin cities. Yeah, there are a couple of cars behind us, but I'll lose them. So we we we exit, drive around a neighborhood. There's nobody following us. We end up going downtown. He wants to go to this theater. I said, I'll drive, I'll show you where your he wanted to know if he could walk to the theater from his hotel. I said, I'll show you where your hotel is. We'll drive to the theater, I'll bring you back to your hotel, but now you'll know how to get there. We get to the hotel or to the the theater. All he wants to do is see what the back door looks like. He doesn't care anything else, but he wants to know what the back door looks like. I should we drive up in an alley, show him the back door, said, Okay, this is good. Do you know if the hotel has a private entrance? No, I don't know. This isn't a common request. Um so I call the hotel. I call the hotel and I said, I'm driving over. I've got Joe Garcia with me, and he wanted to know if there's a private entrance. He said he doesn't need it today, but he will need it tomorrow. And the guy said, When Joe gets here, you just have him come see me. I'm the head of security. We get to the hotel, head of security. I asked for the head of securities, he said, That's me. And I said, I'm here with Joe Garcia. He goes, Where's Joe? I said, Joe's at the desk, he's checking in. And he tells me, Joe doesn't need to check in, I've got his keys with me. Okay, so now I know he's something, he's not ordinary because that's that's not protocol to for the head of security to hold your keys. And I drop him off, I go home, I've got to find out who Joe Garcia is. I Google it. There's a congressman from Florida named Joe Garcia. Then I looked at what this theater had going on the next day. You know, who's playing? There's a band called the Eels. Have you ever heard of the Eels? E-E-L S apparently out of Southern California. There was no Joe Garcia in the Eels. There was nobody in the Eels that was any note to me. Anyhow, I'm now to go see him the following day. He's gonna walk to the hotel the following day, but he said he had to do some sound checks. So I'm assuming, yeah, this guy must be a musician with the eels. I pick up his friend, the older guy from the hotel. We go to the eels or go to the theater. I drop his friend off at the back door, and Joe meets him and says, I'll have a pass for you to go anywhere you want in the theater during the day, but I need you to stick around. Uh so go park your car and come back. I do that, park my car, come back. He's nowhere to be seen by the back door, but the rest of the band of the eels out near the back door smoking cigarettes. So I start chatting with them and he's not coming out, so I open up the back door of the theater and I can see him. He's on stage and he's got a microphone in his hand, and he's saying, When the lights go down in the city, and I said, I recognize this is a great cover band.

Scott 35:50

The singer really likes songs like the original.

Ben 35:54

That's what he chooses as a sound check. Yeah, what's what's his real name?

Bones 35:57

Joe Gastillo is Steve Perry. Steve he was the lead singer from Journey 1989. He is he really that recognizable? He was in 1989. Yeah, okay. That's what the deal was. He was he was a long-haired, cool guy, used, would wear a sport coat, no shirt, yeah. And I think women went nuts over him. And I could relate because I know what he was going through, and yeah, yeah, so he was very concerned that after this concert there was gonna be a mob scene like what he was used to, because he wanted me to work on. Oh, okay, gotta. He wanted me to work on making sure we could get him out of the place. The old guy that was with us was his awesome. Okay, so he was there for the convention. Yeah, he was speaking at the convention.

Ben 36:49

God, so he wasn't even performing, was he?

Bones 36:52

No, no, Joe Garcia did perform the first time he had performed since it publicly since uh he left Journey. He came out with and did two encore songs with the eels, and they they did two journey songs, but he wasn't mobbed, he wasn't mobbed by by the after the nobody knew

Steve Perry Reveal And Goodbyes

Bones 37:15

who he was.

Ben 37:15

I mean, this he loved he seemed like the kind of guy that loved just basking in the fame. Because I remember after you telling us the story, we only have like 30 seconds left.

Scott 37:24

Yeah, tell us you're rebook removed.

Ben 37:26

I remember watching Giants games, and every time they would play, the nice go down, he would be at the games. He had like season tickets, and he'd always go like look at me, look at me, and the cameras would just be like, Oh, look at Steve Perry again, everybody. And he'd just be like, and everybody in the crowd like don't even notice him. They're just like, but he's loving it.

Scott 37:47

It's like my so a Giants game is different than Prairie Home Companion when it comes to his visibility.

Ben 37:56

I think a little yeah. That that Joe Garcia is he's no Garrison Keeler, that's for sure.

Bones 38:09

That's probably one of the nicest things we could have said.

Ben 38:12

Yeah, yeah. You know, that's me, me and my diplomacy. Well, awesome.

Scott 38:20

Cool, cool. We're breaking the rules here on this podcast, but that's what this podcast is made to do. Break the rules.

Ben 38:29

We just introduced a little bit more complexity to the editing process, so yeah. Thanks, Justin. I'm padding the mom head below my desk.

Scott 38:39

Yeah. Because we had such a famous guest.

Bones 38:44

We needed I don't know if you know this, but the Robert Altman you're referring to is dead. Did he make did he make movies? Yeah, Robert Altman made movies. This one didn't. Okay. I remember the day he died. I put on my office, I'm not the Robert Altman that died.

Ben 39:05

The one that the one that hung up Pinto armchairs.

Bones 39:09

Yeah, yeah.

Ben 39:10

That creative genius designed.

Bones 39:12

He's a creative one.

Ben 39:13

Yeah. He just networked. One that matters is still here.

Bones 39:21

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Scott 39:24

All right. Well, we got some famous, you know, like celebrity one-off in the podcast. You know, since a lot of podcasts are you know driven by like what celebrities can you bring on to interview? So we this is like close to that.

Bones 39:41

We Robert Altman, after all.

Ben 39:46

And they we even got got him to sponsor himself too.

Scott 39:51

Yeah, yeah, that's a first. Yeah, we just break all the rules.

Ben 39:58

Okay. Enjoy your Holland days. Thank you. And I'm sure the rest of the day you all are just gonna be working on that jigsaw puzzle together. So now me. Have fun with that.