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In Review - Sports by Huey Lewis & the News (with commentary from Bill Gibson)
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Sam Bennett and Luke Garrison discuss Huey Lewis and the News' album "Sports" on their podcast. They talk about their familiarity with the band and their favorite songs. They also mention how the band is often underrated and how their music can lift spirits. They discuss the band's history and their early albums. They also mention the band's appearance in the movie American Psycho. Hey, what's up everybody, this is Sam Bennett, and I'm Luke Garrison, and welcome back to another episode of OBUFM. We're really excited about today's episode, talking about one of the biggest albums of the 1980s. We're talking about Sports by Huey Lewis and the News, the third album in their discography. Very very prominent album of not only the 80s, but really just in music history as well. This is definitely one of my all-time favorite records, has been for a long time. This is one of my favorite bands, so I'm very excited to get to talk about Huey Lewis and the News in their album, Sports, today. Well, you kind of already hinted at it, but we can start by talking about our familiarity and history with the band. Yeah, here, I'll let you go first. Okay, I'll go first, I'll go first. Honestly, the first time I remember knowing Huey Lewis and the News was when I watched Back to the Future. Okay, yeah, probably the same. And The Power of Love, especially, and then Back in Time, too. There's other tracks by them, like If This Is, one of them, that I knew of, and Hits B-Square, obviously. There's plenty of their hits that I knew of, but this is the first record I've ever listened to all the way through. I guess my dad didn't really listen to them that much, because that's kind of where most of my early music interest came from. So I've always enjoyed Huey Lewis and the News, but never really dove deep into them, so it was nice to check out this record. Yeah, kind of similar with you, I mean, seeing Back to the Future when I was very young, and The Power of Love being so prominent in that film, and I loved that song right away. I mean, we're old enough to where we weren't only streaming music. Yeah. We still had iPods and stuff like that. I remember when we had CDs, too. Yeah, yeah. At our house. So yeah, that was immediately on my iPod, per request of my parents, I guess. So I was familiar with this band being the band that made that song, and then knowing particularly my dad's fondness for this album, I would just see it on vinyl laying around the house, and I would just be like, oh, you know, where's The Power of Love, looking on like the back? It wasn't on there. Like, it's not on that album. You've got to go look and listen to all these other songs. So that was probably around like middle school, and then like all throughout high school, for sure. But yeah, Sports was definitely like my introduction into the band. The other song I would say I knew mostly by then before that was Working for a Living, which is pretty prominent on radio, but also it's in a lot of films as well. That's in Big with Tom Hanks. Okay, yeah, yeah. I knew I'd heard that one from a movie. But yeah, that's in a few things. I feel like a lot of their songs are in movies. Yeah. They're kind of like Kenny Loggins. Yeah. Except they don't make as much songs for film. But another song I knew from the picture of this album was Do You Believe in Love? That's another one of their big hits. But yeah, Sports was really my introduction into this band as a whole, and then that followed with me getting into the picture of this album, and definitely Four, which has a lot of the bigger hits that aren't on Sports. Recently, just within the past few months, I've been getting into their debut album, as well as the Small World album. So yeah, I've definitely been pretty fond of their catalog for a long time. Yeah, well that's cool. After this, I definitely want to dive more into their catalog, for sure. Because I really haven't heard anything about this band I don't like. Yeah, they don't really have many bad songs. Even if it's one that you don't like as much, it's still one that you're completely fine with it being on. You can appreciate it. Yeah. And yeah, I think that that speaks to the songwriting power of this band, as well as just how good the band is. A lot of people tend to write this band off, I've seen, in interviews and culture and stuff like that, as being the hip-to-be-square guys. Yeah. Which, I mean, that's a great song. I don't know why that would be a bad thing. I think that might- They have other hits, too. Yeah, I don't know. I think that might have been part of the reason I never got bigger than them. Because there wasn't a lot of people that I would hear talking about, like, oh, I love Huey Lewis and the News. Yeah. They're a huge influence on me, musically speaking. And, like, I don't know. They're just a great band, because they're there for you to help you celebrate the good times, and they're there for you to support you in the bad times. And, you know, they just make feel-good music that can lift anyone's spirits, I think. So I don't think they get nearly enough credit as a band. Obviously, Huey Lewis, you know, is the front man. His voice is pretty iconic and recognizable. But the News, you know, I don't think they get nearly enough credit for how good of musicians they are. You know, Chris Hayes, the early guitarist, is one of my all-time favorite guitarists. And you don't really hear his name come up. Yeah, no. He has plenty of really great parts, sings very well, as well as all the other members of the band. And he also writes very well, too. Yeah, there's a lot of talent in this band that I think goes unnoticed. So that's one cool thing about this show, is we get to kind of bring light to that. So we brought up movies regarding this band. And there is one movie that, funnily enough, has come up on this show in a previous episode. Yeah, it is. It's American Psycho. Yeah. For those of you who don't know, Patrick Bateman was quite fond of this band, and he lets the viewers know in the movie how fond of a band he is. And this album, specifically. This band, as well as OBUFM albums, Genesis, both receive descriptions and or monologues about how much Patrick Bateman adores these bands. Specifically, this album, Sports, that we're discussing today. We're not going to read the clip, but here's what Patrick Bateman has to say about Sports from 1983. You like Huey Lewis and the News? Their early work was a little too new wave for my taste. But when Sports came out in 1983, I think they really came into their own, commercially and artistically. The whole album has a clear, crisp sound, and a new sheen of consummate professionalism that really gives the songs a big boost. He's been compared to Elvis Costello, but I think Huey has a far more bitter, cynical sense of humor. In 87, Huey released this, Four, the most accomplished album. I think they're undisputed masterpieces. Hip to be square. A song so catchy, most people probably don't listen to the lyrics. But they should, because it's not just about the pleasures of conformity and the importance of friends. It's also a personal statement about the band itself. So yeah, he clearly enjoys this record. I don't know if that's something that we should necessarily be condoning. I'll say this. I used to love hip to be square, and then I became aware of not only that scene and that song specifically, but the band as a whole. And I got very uncomfortable listening to the song. So there was actually like three or four years that I just wouldn't listen to it. Because I became so uncomfortable with the idea of it. And also, I mean, it's a running joke in our friend group, and definitely in the band as well, that I have a very similar music taste to Patrick Bateman. I mean, you do. It's almost identical. Well, a lot of his favorites seem to be in your favorite list, too. Yeah. If you go and hear all the artists that he lists in the movie, but specifically the book as well, which I've never read, but I've read all the artists that he's mentioned. It's pretty... It lines up, which, I don't know. I hope that doesn't say anything about me. Nah. Say what you want about PB, but he's got some good teams. But yeah, it made me super uncomfortable. And then all throughout those years, I hadn't actually seen the movie. That's probably a good thing, though. Yeah. It wasn't until probably last year, when the whole American Psycho thing just became such a meme, that finally, I had seen so much of the movie through clips and memes, that I'm like, this doesn't seem nearly as... I mean, obviously it's horrible, but it's not as horrific. There's some graphic scenes. It's almost like a very demented comedy. Yeah, it's almost like a parody. Yeah. At some point. My first time watching that movie was also... We're juniors right now. Yeah. It would have been the beginning, I think, of our sophomore year out there. Yeah. I watched it with some buds. Honestly, a pretty entertaining movie. It has a cult following. Yeah. But I don't know, I didn't have any hang-ups listening to Hit To Be Square after watching it, just because I didn't feel like... You accepted it. Well, no. I'm trying to be very careful with what I say. I didn't have any hang-ups, because I was like, okay, well this guy's clearly just... There's no comparison. Just a character. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so getting into some artist history. Huey Lewis and the News is an American Bay Area rock band that blends elements of rock, pop, R&B, and new wave into their catalog of timeless hits. The band formed in the late 1970s under the original name Huey Lewis and the American Express. However, they would later change their name to Huey Lewis and the News due to American Express being a trademark issue with a popular credit card company. The band consists of frontman and harmonica player Huey Lewis, guitarist Chris Hayes, drummer Bill Gibson, keyboardist Sean Hopper, rhythm guitarist and sax player Johnny Cola, and bassist Mario Cipollino. They released their self-titled debut album in 1980 under Chrysalis Records. The album received little attention but remains a cult classic to this day. They would follow up with 1982's Picture This, which features hits like Working for a Livin', Do You Believe in Love?, and Hope You Love Me Like You Say You Do. The album gave the band some success on the charts, but it would be their 1983 follow-up, Sports, that gave the band legendary status. The multi-platinum album was a juggernaut success and became one of the highest-selling records of the 1980s. It would also win the band a Grammy Award for the Heart of Rock and Roll's music video. The band would continue with projects like singing on We Are The World in 1985, as well as contributing two songs for the hit film Back to the Future. These include The Power of Love and Back in Time. Lewis also has a cameo in the film. They would follow up this sports record with Four in 1986, which featured hits like Step With You, Hit To Be Square, and Doing It All For My Baby. It also did considerably well and went multi-platinum. They released Small World in 1988, which wasn't as well-received since the band chose a more sophisticated and jazzier approach. The band still had decent chart success, barring the No. 3 hit Perfect World. It would release more albums such as Heart of Play, Plan B, and Soulsville. The band went through a few lineup changes when bassist Mario Cipollina and guitarist Chris Hayes left the band in the late 1990s and early 2000s, respectively. They would continue to be a very prominent live act until Huey Lewis was diagnosed with Meniere's Disease around 2018, which left him nearly deaf. The band no longer performs because of this, but its legacy lives on to this day. The band's last release is 2019's Weather, which features songs written and recorded prior to Lewis' Meniere's diagnosis. Now we're going to talk about some album history. Sports was the third studio album by Huey Lewis and the News, and it played a pivotal role in catapulting the band to international stardom. It was self-produced by the band Fantasy Studios, the record plant, and the Automat. It was released on September 15, 1983 on Chrysalis Records. It's particularly noteworthy for a string of hit singles that became radio staples and MTV favorites during the early 1980s. These songs helped define the sound of the band and the decade, blending rock, R&B, and pop influences into an irresistibly catchy and accessible package. The album's themes often revolved around love, relationships, and the ups and downs of everyday life, resonating with a broad audience. Its success not only solidified Huey Lewis and the News as major players in the music industry, but also left a profound mark on the pop music landscape of the 1980s and beyond. Okay, so one of the coolest things about this show is that we get to interview some really cool people, and if you would have told me a few years ago that we would have been able to conduct this interview, I wouldn't have believed you. The same can be said for plenty of the people that we've gotten to have on, and hopefully people that we get to have on in the future, but very, very excited that we get to have Mr. Bill Gibson on this podcast discussing sports with us in a track-by-track analysis. I mean, it's quite an honor. Our drummer for Huey Lewis and the News, Bill Gibson, took the time to Zoom with us and kind of break down each song and answer a few interview questions. Very interesting things that he had to say about not only this album, but kind of their entire career. We talked about American Psycho. We did. And yeah, plenty of really cool things that he had to say. The album turns 40 this year, so it was pretty special that we got to speak with him about this very iconic record from 1983. So without further ado, this is our interview and track-by-track review of sports with Mr. Bill Gibson. Hello. Hey there. Gentlemen, how you doing? Good. How are you? Good. Luke and Sam. Got it. Yes, sir. Yeah, we want to welcome you to our show over UFM, and we want to really say thank you for taking the time to do this with us. Thank you. This year is the 40th anniversary of the album. So yeah, we wanted to celebrate it on this show. So yeah, thank you for taking the time to come on. Awesome. Thanks for having me. Yes, sir. So we're going to do a couple of interview questions before we get into the album. Let's start with this one. There was a drastic production change between sports and four that is mainly audible in the drum sound. You kind of affectionately refer to this as the snare that ate Cleveland. Describe what changes were made production-wise between those two albums. Well, sports was mixed by Bob Clearmountain, and four was mixed by us with this engineer friend of ours, Bob Mispach. And Bob was responsible for that snare. Actually, Bob Clearmountain mixed Stuck With You that was on four. Okay. So that was his mix. And then the rest of it was Bob Mispach. So the Bob Mispach stuff, I don't, you know, it's interesting how that got by our ears, but it did somehow. So that's the main production difference, just mixed by two different people. Okay, cool. This next question. Huey has given plenty of statements on the matter, but I'm curious for your thoughts on regarding Patrick Bateman's love for the band and American Freckle. Can you speak on that a little? Are you aware? Have you seen the movie? I've seen bits and pieces. I haven't seen the movie all the way through, but I'm aware of the scene, obviously. And I've seen the spoof that Huey and Weird Al did, which is hilarious. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know much about it, frankly. I just don't know how it came to be. And I just, I don't really know much about it, even though I wrote the song. Okay, cool. So you are currently our second guest that was involved with the We Are The World tracks. Can you briefly describe what that was like? Oh, that was unbelievable. Briefly, no. You know, usually when I talk to my friends about that, it takes a lot longer. It was amazing. The recording session was at A&M Studios in Los Angeles, right after the American Music Awards. And we'd won a couple of American Music Awards that night at the show. The session, I believe, started like 11.30 or midnight. So everybody gathered in the big room at A&M. And, you know, I mean, Stevie Wonder. You're in the same room with Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, Quincy Jones, Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, Tina Turner. It just goes on and on and on, you know? So a bit surreal, probably, but it felt at the time like it was just a bunch of people in a room, you know? You just look around and go, oh, yeah, look, there's Steve Perry. Oh, yeah, that's Kenny Loggins, yeah. You know? It was just crazy. Right. A lot of fun, a lot of fun. I was there until 8 in the morning. That's awesome. So going off of the drum question we had earlier, you have the drum approach of Alexis Moore, from what I've heard you say. I would still call you a pretty powerhouse drummer with a roster of fills and versatile grooves throughout the band's discography. I'm a drummer myself. We both play music, so. Cool. How do you find a balance between those two factors? Well, you have to, as a drummer, obviously your job, especially if you're playing in a band that has a lead singer and the focus is on the lyrics and the singer, right? You have to be very solid and lay down that bed. So there's not really a lot of room to be, you know, fluffy and filly and all that stuff. So you really have to be subtle and lay down that solid rhythm and accent the stuff that needs to be accented at just the right times. That's what I meant by Alexis Moore, you know? You keep it solid and just keep going. And then when it calls for a fill or a accent with the horns or whatever you're accenting, that's the time to cut loose. But otherwise, if you're behind a lead singer, especially, you've really got to just keep it solid. Cool. Awesome. So when did you first meet Huey and the rest of the group and how long did it take for the news to become the news? I met Huey, well, we grew up in the same town together. I was in seventh grade. He was in eighth grade. I don't think we met in junior high school, but we were at the same junior high school together. And then he went off to Lawrenceville Academy in New Jersey for high school. I went to the local high school in Mill Valley. And I first met him when he came back from the East Coast and joined another local band that was friends of ours, Clover. He and Sean joined Clover at the same time. So that's really when I met Huey. That was probably 1970, 1975, I'm going to guess. And we had Soundhole, Mario, Johnny Cole, and myself at Soundhole going. He and Sean had Clover going with Alex Call and John McPhee and Mitch Howie and John Ciambotti. And let's see, how long did it take? We started playing together in 77. We put together a thing we called Monday Night Live that played at a local club. We did Monday night jam sessions. And it was like a variety show. We'd have guests, artists. We had Ricky Lee Jones come. We'd have boss gags. We had Van Morrison come one night. We had Tommy Johnson from the Doobies. A bunch of people come in and local musicians come in and we jam with them. And that was really the genesis of the News, was that Monday Night Live band. So it was probably around 77. And then Huey Lewis and the News formed in earnest in 1979. Okay, cool. Y'all are pretty central to the Bay Area, correct? Yeah. Are you still there today? Yeah, I'm in the North Bay. I'm right on the Marin-Sonoma County line. Okay, nice. They say the heart of rock and roll is to win. And from what I've seen, I believe them. I'll be up on any bed and preach them. But the heart of rock and roll. The heart of rock and roll is to beat them. Okay, cool. So kind of getting into the album. So obviously starting off with the heart of rock and roll. Just a little bit of analysis. It's a great opening track. Lots of energy to start the album. Lots of cool changes and a killer harp solo from Huey at the end. I have a couple of questions for you. Can you kind of share your thoughts on the song and kind of all the technology that was used to create the song? Yeah. The heartbeat took about 15 minutes. And it's me playing a Linn drum, a kick drum sound on a Linn drum. Not the original one, but the Linn drum 2 maybe was. But, yeah, that's just me playing a pad, you know. That's all I'm doing. And then what Sean did was, let's see, was there not a lot of technology in that tune. He plays that synth part by hand. There was no clip track or anything. Yeah, there's not a lot of technology on heart of rock and roll. Some of the other tunes, definitely. So the video for this song won you guys a Grammy for best music video, long form. What was it like winning a Grammy for a video, which was pretty much a relatively new format at the time? Great. I wish we'd won one for album, you know, or song. But, I mean, you know, winning a Grammy is a pretty special moment for whatever it is. We were thrilled. Yeah. I have one question about this song. Was there a thought behind putting it first on the record? Did you want that to kind of be like, I don't know, the thesis for the rest of the album, or did it just end up being the first track? Huey usually sequenced the albums, you know. He'd run it by us, but he had the final say on the sequence of the songs. So he picked that one first, and it just made sense to everybody because of the way it started, you know, especially with the heartbeat. It just made sense. Okay, cool. Heart and soul. Got it all. I just love it every night. So track two, Heart and Soul. I absolutely love this song. This is probably one of my all-time favorite songs, not just in y'all's discography, but of all time. So you correct us if we're wrong. This is just based on our research, but this song was initially shelved when it was made known that there were two other versions, one by Exile and one by the Busboys, who made the decision to not only put it back on the album, but also make it their first single. Huey and our manager, Bob, I'm sure, because it came out so good. Certain songs, when you record them, they either really sing and come out. The finished product is really awesome. Or sometimes you miss them when you record them, you know. And that one just sounded so good. And we did a pretty funny video for it as well. I think it's just because it sounded like a hit single to us. Yeah, all that great auxiliary percussion, did you record that? And how was that done live as well? Yeah, I played all that stuff. I recorded the go-go bells and the timbales in the hallway of the record plant because it had a nice ambient tone that was in the hallway between the studios A&B and Sausalito. So I recorded them there live. I had a couple of go-go bells right next to the kit. I just played it live, you know. Cool. So track three, That Is Bad. Very smooth song, very bluesy as well. And it's also very vocally driven. Lots of great instrumentation on this and another great harp solo from Huey with initially a Clover composition. Who made the decision to bring this to the news to record it and whose idea was it to use the Lindrum? Well, Johnny did the vocal arrangement on that and he was just messing around with it one day. We talked about maybe recording the shuffle version, which is how Clover did it. And also Dave Edmonds and Rock Pile did a version of it too that was a shuffle version. And Johnny was just messing around at his house one day on his four-track and he came up with the vocal arrangement. And just as we all did back then when we were writing, we just set up a drum machine, you know, to play to. And when he brought the demo in and we went, Oh, that sounds cool, man. Let's use the Lindrum and everything. Do it just the way you did it. So that's, it was really all Johnny's idea with that one. It's refreshing how, even though that's mainly a 12-bar blues song, the vocals and also the drum machine sound kind of make it refreshing and new even though like, you know, we've had so many blues songs like that. But it's one of my favorite tracks on this record. What would you say is like the main genre of music that Huey Lewis and the News perform? Because I've heard New Wave a lot, but I think that it kind of comes and goes in terms of that. Well, our first album, just because the songs were all fast, that's why they called it New Wave. I would have never called it New Wave. I think it's more rhythm and blues influenced. With the early stuff, there's a lot of rock. So I would say it's rock slash rhythm and blues. That's how I would put it, yeah. Because, I mean, you got songs like Hope You Love Me Like You Say You Do, which is a flat-out R&B tune, you know. Duke wrote it, just stone-cold R&B. Like Do It All For My Baby, R&B, you know. So we were very influenced by, early on in our music lives, we were influenced by James Brown and Tower of Power and all those people, you know. So we're R&B influenced basically. But we love rock too, you know. I'm alone with you So track four, I Want A New Drug, obviously just a really powerhouse of a song. It's the second single from the album. I think it's one of the premier Chris Hayes tracks from our researcher Johnny Cole, who apparently wrote the horn section in under ten minutes. I personally love how you follow the horns on the second go-around of the horn section with the snare hits. Bop, bop, bop. Yeah. Yeah. Every time I hear that song in public, and I know music people are around me, they're always doing that with it. So that's pretty iconic. Can you share your thoughts on the song just as a whole? Yeah, that was a hybrid drum machine and real drums. The kick drum and the hi-hat and the snare drum is the Linn drum. And I went in and overdubbed all the toms and the cymbals, which was a formula that we did on a number of tunes back then. The guys wanted it to just, it kind of just, really, it kind of just lays there. Pretty static, you know? But with everything on top of it, it gives it that juice. But the drum track is just pretty mundane and solid, you know? Right. In my estimation. I would have played it a little fancier, probably, if I had played the whole thing. But like I said, I overdubbed the toms, cymbal crashes, and I overdubbed the second snare drum too. Yeah, with that bop, bop, bop, that's an overdub on snare drum that I put in there. Yeah. I'm going to ask this question, and you can answer as much as you can. As many know, there was a certain legal situation with this song, and while we can't discuss that, I do want to ask about the band's work for film. So my question is this. If the band wasn't thrilled about writing the song Ghostbusters, what was more appealing about writing two songs for Back to the Future, specifically Back in Time? That one, they asked us to. Bob Zemeckis, the producer of Back to the Future, called Huey personally and said, Marty McFly, the main character in the movie, his favorite band is Huey Lewis and the News. He's got a poster on the wall of his bedroom in the movie, right? So that's how Zemeckis saw Marty McFly, his favorite band. He was a big Huey Lewis fan, and he thought, it'd be great if we could write a couple of tunes for the record. So, okay. Was the band there the same days that Christopher Lloyd shot his Doc Brown cameo scenes for the Power of Love video? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, we hung out. We hung out at the Little Club, Uncle Charlie's friend that we used to play all the time. That was the place where we really kind of broke out of. And, yeah, Christopher was there, hung out all night with us. Really nice guy. So track five, Walking on a Thin Line, is a hit single from the album. It's a great rock track. A lot of hope within the lyrics. It's written about the mistreatment of Vietnam War veterans. A great Chris Hayes solo that really serves the song well. As a drummer, I want to compliment the triplet fill on that third pre-chorus. Cool. And I think this song, as well as maybe Bad is Bad as well, are kind of the underdogs on this album in terms of them being somewhat overlooked. What are your thoughts on this track? Our friend Andre Pessis wrote that song. It's a great song live. People always loved it live. And, of course, we'd always dedicate it to the vets. You know how that goes down. So, yeah, I don't know. It's a good rock track and worthy to be on that record. You mentioned that song being great live. And when I was listening to this record, I was thinking how this is probably one of, if not the most, anthemic on the record. When y'all write something like that, record something like that, in the studio, were y'all thinking, oh, this would be great live? Or did it just kind of just happen that way? Well, we played it live for a while already. And we knew it was a good live song. Yeah, it was just, it was a natural. I finally found a home where I never feel alone. Right here where I belong. And I finally found a home where it's strong. So track six, Finally Found a Home. I wanted to make note, it's very interesting in terms of this album, kind of throughout the discography, to hear an acoustic guitar. Yeah. Really gives the song a lot of texture. And it's another great rock track. I think it was really cool to follow Walking on a Thin Line. Can you speak on this song and its subject matter, as well as how the band's manager, Bob Brown, got a writing credit? I can't remember how Bob Brown got a writing credit. You just jogged my memory. I guess he did, didn't he? I have no idea why. He may have had something to do with the title. I mean, he may have had something to do with the lyrics. But it was just about finally finding a home with what you're doing, with the music, with the guys in the band. We'd finally really found a home. And it was starting to work out for us. Yeah. I'll bet you Bob had something to do with the lyrics on that one. Track seven, If This Is It. Fourth single from the album. I mean, it's such a staple of the band. The band doing what they do best, blending in with the music and doing what they do best. And I think it's really cool. I think it's really cool. I think it's really cool. I think it's really cool. I think it's really cool. I think it's really cool. I think it's really cool. I think it's really cool. I think it's really cool. I think it's really cool. I think it's really cool. I think it's really cool. I think it's really cool. I think it's really cool. I think it's really cool. I think it's really cool. I think it's really cool. I think it's really cool. I think it's really cool. I think it's really cool. I think it's really cool. I think it's really cool. I think it's really cool. I think it's really cool. I think it's really cool. I think it's really cool. I think it's really cool. I think it's really cool. I think it's really cool. I think it's really cool. I think it's really cool. I think it's really cool. I think it's really cool. I think it's really cool. I think it's really cool. I think it's really cool. I think it's really cool. I think it's really cool. I think it's really cool. I think it's really cool. I think it's really cool. I think it's really cool. It sings well, you know? It's in the doo-wop vein, and yeah, Johnny wrote that song. He wanted to write a song that was a summertime song, like Sly Stone's Hot Fun in the Summertime, right? Same beat. You know, 12-8, and so it just became apparent that that lyric wasn't going to work for the background. So, ooh-wop, ooh-whoa. It made more sense. I will say, you know, obviously the iconic snare fill that really gets the attention of the listener at the beginning, and you kind of utilize this kind of groove on a lot of the band songs. It's one of my favorite aspects that you're playing, kind of like you mentioned earlier with doing it all for my baby, and hope you love me like you say you do, and a couple of others. So that's one of my favorite things about your playing. It's an iconic video. Can you speak on filming this video and some of your other favorite videos that you guys did? Yeah, that was great. That was fun. We did that in Santa Cruz on the beach down in Santa Cruz here in California, and that was a lot of fun to do. What other ones? Doing it all for my baby was really fun. Did that in Los Angeles, because we all were in prosthetic makeup, you know? I remember I took a walk out on the street one day in my prosthetic stuff, and I got some pretty weird looks. Let's see. We've done a lot, so many videos, man. Small World was fun to do, because Stan Getz was there, and he, you know, and we got to hang out with Stan Getz, which was a real thrill. Hard Rock and Roll was fun. That was a fun video to do, because we filmed that all over. We filmed that in New York, walking across the Brooklyn Bridge, down in Times Square. Yeah, a lot of times the videos were tedious, because there was a lot of waiting around while the people get the set set up for you, you know, and then all the makeup crap, and I remember hiding from the makeup person. But yeah. Let's see. What other ones? Hit the B Square was cool. We did that in London with the Godly and Crams from the 10CC guys. Yeah, my favorite video is Stuck With You, for sure. That was a ball. We did that on a little island. You guys remember ever hear of a show called Gilligan's Island? Yeah. You know, the very intro, where there's a scene from the ocean of a little island off in the distance? That's the island we did that on. Oh, wow. That's cool. It's off of Nassau, down in the Bahamas. That was really fun. That one was particularly fun, because, you know, we were in the water a lot, and yeah, it was a lot of fun. Track 8, You Crack Me Up, a really fun album track that really contributes to the whole vibe of the album as a whole, I would say. I'm kind of driven by the rhythm section, that, of course, being you and Mario. I wanted to ask this. How did the band dynamic change when Mario and Chris left at both of their respective times? Well, Mario left first, and fortunately, John Pierce came in to play. And he was, I won't say, maybe technically better than Mario, but just different in the way he played the instrument. Mario was more of a thumb pick to smash it out very loud. And John was more subdued, you know, with the fingers, and a little more subdued sound, but technically awesome, you know. So I don't feel we lost much of a beat there. Apparently, a lot of our fans did, because Mario was such a presence, you know, his look and his attitude and all the cigarette, you know, it was more of a visual thing with Mario, you know. But John, he's a great player. He's playing with Toto now, you know. So he's just a great player. And when Chris left, that one really got me, personally, because Chris, to me, was a very integral part of the band. And Steph Burns came in at the time, and bless his heart, he filled that void very admirably. But he wasn't what Chris added to the band, you know. Chris sang well, not that Steph doesn't sing well, but he just wasn't Chris. Steph's a great player, don't get me wrong. Steph's a wonderful player. But it was just, he's different, you know. He'd be the first guy to tell you, he's just a different style. Chris Hayes, I think, is very, very underrated. Super underrated. Okay, so moving on to track nine, the last song on the album, Honky Tonk Blues, written by Hank Williams. This band, your band, has a lot of versatility, which I think is mainly demonstrated on the Small World album. However, I think this song is a really good example, as you guys perfectly execute country music. It also features John McPhee of Clover and the Doobie Brothers on pedal steel, as well. What made you guys decide to cover a Hank Williams song? I'm sure that was Huey's idea. Boy, you know, I really don't remember. It's just one of those deals where, you know, we'd work up anything that we, there was so many different influences in our band. Different players, different people had different influences. And Huey loved that old Hank Williams stuff, you know. And that tune in particular, he really liked and thought it'd be a good vehicle for him to play his harp. And we'd get McPhee on to play the pedal steel, and he just figured that'd be a really cool thing to put on there. So it turned out great, and we added it. Cool. Yeah. So yeah, that wraps up the album. You know, obviously, like I said earlier, the album turns 40 this year. What does that say about me? No, no. Do you have any overall thoughts on the album? God for sports, you know. It put us on the international map and got us all the offers and stuff like, you know, like Zemeckis probably wouldn't have called to write some tunes for Back to the Future. And it got us in a lot of doors, and then we were able to play around the world. And you know, it was huge. It was just, it was huge. Biggest selling album of that year. It beat out everything but Thriller, beat out Purple Rain, it beat out Born to Run. You know, it was a massive album, and we're very proud of that. Yeah, I think you guys really continued this trip, obviously, with Four also being such a huge hit. But I will say, the first two records, the self-titled as well as Picture This, I love those records. Listening back to them, like, Don't Make Me Do It. Don't make me do it to you. Don't make me do it to you. Don't make me do it to you. Don't make me do it to you. And Hearts. Don't make me do it to you. Don't make me do it to you. Don't make me do it to you. And Hearts. Don't make me do it to you. Don't make me do it to you. And Hearts. Don't make me do it to you. Don't make me do it to you. Don't make me do it to you. Don't make me do it to you. Don't make me do it to you. Don't make me do it to you. Don't make me do it to you. Don't make me do it to you. Don't make me do it to you. Don't make me do it to you. Don't make me do it to you. I didn't see it as reggae, but it did have that backbeat guitar and stuff. Which is definitely reggae influenced. I played it more like an R&B tune. To me it was more of an R&B tune. But with a gank, gank, gank, gank. I guess it was a ska. More of a ska. At the time, we liked bands like Selector. Remember Selector? Which was an English ska band. And the specials and stuff like that. So we wanted to do something like that. We were kind of musical chameleons. We'd do all different styles. Which made sports all the more unique. Because it did. It had a lot of different musical styles on that album. Kind of speaking on your playing. Who would you say are some of your biggest influences? Mitch Mitchell. Jimi Hendrix's drummer. Buddy Rich. Greg Arrico from Sly. Lenny White with Return to Forever. A lot of them. Billy Cobham. Although I don't play anything like Billy Cobham. He was a big influence. A couple of local guys. Bill Bowen with the Sons of Champlain was a big influence on me at the time. More recently, it would be guys like Henrikh De Almeida. Dave Weckl. Dennis Chambers. Vinny Kaliuta. Guys like that who I really admire. Who are some bands, like some more current bands, if you have any, that excite you musically? Snarky Puppy. You guys know them? I don't. Check them out, man. Check those guys out. They're called Snarky Puppy. They're from North Texas State. They all went to North Texas State Music Program. Let's see. Who else nowadays? I've always been a huge Pat Metheny fan. Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays, I think, are just amazing. I've always been a huge Steely Dan fan. More recently, it would probably be guys like Corey Wong. Corey Henry. Keyboard player. Monster, monster keyboard player. Love his stuff. Stuff like that. Kind of fusion-ish, but there's a lot of soul. A lot of rhythm and blues influence in all of it. I'm a guitar player, and I personally love Corey Wong. He's awesome. He's great. Umphreys McGee. Big Umphreys fans. The guys in that band are, to the man, some of the nicest people you'll know and some of the most talented people you'll ever meet. They're just super. I don't know if you've ever heard of them, but they're called Umphreys McGee, and they're fantastic. Jam band stuff. We kind of touched on this earlier, how Huey Lewis and the News can be a little bit hard to classify in terms of one specific genre, but who would you say, especially back throughout the 80s, who would you say were your contemporaries? I don't know that we were like anybody else. I think one of the reasons why we were able to become so successful is because we carved our own little niche. Nobody else was really doing what we were doing at the time. All and Oates, maybe. Our real R&B influence. Yeah, I think we were very unique at the time. There wasn't anybody else really doing what we were doing. Yeah, I mean, the musicality and the instrumentation of the band really holds up to this day when you go back and listen to those records. The songs, the songs. We were very prolific in our songwriting there for a long time. The songs hold up over time. It all starts with a song. You can't polish a turd. That's what they all say. What would you say is your favorite ballad that the band did? There aren't many, but out of the ones that there are, what would you say is your favorite? World, to me. Yes, yes. To me. You mean the world. Small World. That's my favorite. Mike Duke wrote that. Yeah, that's my favorite ballad. Yeah, I love that song. Cool, so we'll get you out of here. Is there anything you'd like to plug? Yeah, you spoke about our first album and that you liked our first record. Well, we're going to be remixing that and re-releasing it. So, yeah, Johnny and I are going to work on that Johnny and I will kind of touch it up a little bit and then Bob will remix which will be great because we're going to slow the tempos down a little bit. That's going to be really fun to do. So watch for that. Also, our play, The Heart of Rock and Roll has a theater on Broadway now. It's going to open on Broadway in April, next April. So that's something to watch for and that's really exciting for us. It's called The Heart of Rock and Roll and it's a fictional story. It's not about the band. So all our songs tie into the storyline of the musical. So that's coming up in April and that's really exciting for us. Yeah, that's definitely something to look forward to. So kind of wrapping up here, we want to make note that we're going to include a GoFundMe link because we want our listeners to donate towards Muneer's research. Cool. Is there anything you want to say about Huey and how he's doing currently? Huey is pretty much the same as he was when his hearing went. He has bad days, a lot more bad days than good days. When he wakes up in the morning, he grades his hearing 1-10 and a good day for him, I mean a real, real, real, the best day for him would be about a 5 or a 6. It's generally around a 1 or a 2 which is, he just can't. He can't put on a record and listen to music, which I just can't fathom. That is just mind-boggling to me and it's so sad. I'm going up to visit him here in two weeks. I'm going up to Montana to visit him and it'll be good to see him. I don't see him very often. We don't talk all that often because he can't hear. It's very sad that a guy who was so... He really loves music especially listening to music and he can't listen to music anymore. It's just horrible. I can't imagine that. He spends his time traveling the world fishing now, which is not horrible. He plays some golf, I would imagine as well. He plays some golf, yeah. We're definitely praying for Huey and hopefully we can raise a little bit of money to donate towards veneers research. We want to thank you for coming on to our show. I will say, as a drummer, you're one of my biggest influences so this has been a real pleasure and an honor. Thank you for taking the time to join us. We really appreciate it. I appreciate you and thanks for having me. It was a ball. I had a great time. Best of luck with your... It's a podcast you do? It's a podcast called OBUFM and essentially, like we said, we're musicians and we listen to classic rock. We're in a band called Bad Habit and we love all these legendary records and we want to promote them to our generations. That's kind of our premise. Cool. I love it. Best of luck with all of that, man. Thank you very much. You bet. Take good care, man. So yeah, that was our interview with Mr. Bill Gibson, drummer for Huey Lewis and the News. Yeah, that was definitely an honor. It was great talking with him. Yeah, quite a privilege. He's been one of my favorite drummers for a long time and kind of like we said about Chris Hayes at the top of the episode, how pretty underrated. You don't hear his name come up nearly as much as it should. So that was a real treat for the both of us and we want to once again extend our gratitude to Mr. Gibson for taking the time to come on our show. Yeah, he gave some great, direct and thoughtful answers so it was always great to interview. Every person we've interviewed on this podcast so far has been very gracious to even accept an interview first off, but also we've had some great conversations with them. Yeah, we've now had two Grammy Award winning artists on the show, as well as two people involved in the We Are The World sessions. That's actually kind of wild. Yeah, which I think is pretty sick. But yeah, thank you to Mr. Gibson for taking the time to come on our show and getting into the guessing game here. I'm not at all sure what yours is going to be. We didn't talk a whole lot about this album, just you and me. Yeah, that's true. Getting your thoughts, I'm not entirely sure what your favorite song would be. But, man, I don't know. I'm going to guess if this is it. Yeah, that's right. That song, I mean, that's one I've known since I was a kid. I didn't know if you listened to the News for a while, not until fairly recently, the past few years. But I still didn't really listen to it that often. So, going on this record, recognizing that song and realizing just how good it is. But other than that, I wasn't too familiar with any of these songs. And my second favorite is probably Bad is Bad. The way the vocals are part of the instrumentation is really cool. That's the big factor of this band. If they were in the 50s or 60s even, maybe the 40s, they would definitely be a doo-wop band. And they all sing very, very well. They have multiple acapella songs throughout their discography. They sound really good. I think that's a really cool thing about the band is that they have their pretty strong instrumentation in songs that they've written, but they do so with very, very prominent backing vocals and pretty intricate vocal lines throughout the songs. So that's really cool. Very easy to sing along to. Definitely. Alright, so, my turn. I'm going to guess again. I feel like I've heard you say this like plenty of times. It's Heart and Soul, isn't it? I think that's kind of cheating, because I think I heard you say that. Or maybe it was just how you were talking about it. Can I guess your second favorite, though? Since I kind of already knew that. I don't know what my second favorite is. Well, actually, yeah. If you don't know that, I definitely don't know. I have one. Probably Heart of Rock and Roll? No. That song is just such a staple, not only on this album, but in their entire catalog. It's such a fun song. Really well written. Very feel-good. I mean, it's the summer. Like we've heard Bill say. It definitely is that. Just feel-good vibes all around. You showed me the video for this one, too. I enjoyed it. In terms of Heart and Soul, I always kind of feel bad that that's my favorite off this album since it's a cover. But I think, looking back, especially with any music fans, I think this is the version that anyone would really know. It's the version I found first. I didn't even know those two other versions existed until I knew about this song. And this was the lead single, and it did considerably well. I think it's a really great track. That type of situation reminds me of, say, Tennessee Whiskey. Chris Taylor didn't write that, but when you hear that, you think of that as his song because he's the one who got it popular. Yeah, I didn't even know that. Yeah, he did not write it. It's a very slow, smooth do-up. Some are very rock and roll, ready-to-play in arenas. Some are country. Yeah, it definitely goes all over the place, genre-wise, but I always appreciate that. Yeah, and they do a good job of having all those different styles but making it very concise as well. So yeah, there's definitely a song for everybody on this record. Okay, so getting into three of the week, I'm going to start with Heavy Rain by Daryl Hall and John Oates and then last, we've got Only Over You by Fleetwood Mac off the Mirage album from 1982. And then last, we've got Only Over You by Fleetwood Mac off the Mirage album from 1982. And then last, we've got Only Over You by Fleetwood Mac off the Mirage album from 1982. And then last, we've got Only Over You by Fleetwood Mac off the Mirage album from 1982. And then last, we've got Only Over You by Fleetwood Mac off the Mirage album from 1982. off the Mirage album from 1982. off the Mirage album from 1982. off the Mirage album from 1982. off the Mirage album from 1982. off the Mirage album from 1982. off the Mirage album from 1982. Alright, in my three of the week, for the first song, I'm going with Rabbit Dog, which is a new single by the band Palace, so from 2023. by the band Palace, so from 2023. by the band Palace, so from 2023. by the band Palace, so from 2023. by the band Palace, so from 2023. by the band Palace, so from 2023. Next one is Silver Springs by Fleetwood Mac, which is off the Rumor's Deluxe Edition. We talked about Rumor's since it was our first episode actually, but we didn't talk about Deluxe Edition. That's from 1977. That's from 1977. That's from 1977. That's from 1977. That's from 1977. That's from 1977. That's from 1977. That's from 1977. That's from 1977. That's from 1977. That's from 1977. That's from 1977. That's from 1977. That's from 1977. That's from 1977. That's from 1977. That's from 1977. That's from 1977. That's from 1977. That's from 1977. That's from 1977. That's from 1977. That's from 1977. That's from 1977. That's from 1977. That's from 1977. That's from 1977. 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