Roger Earl, Foghead, founding member, right here, the drummer, King of Foghats. Slow ride. I just want to make some love to you. Fool for the city. What is up? Stone blue. I'm an Earl of the Cheap Royalty. Don't want to be a king. They had to work too hard. Earl's, they're knighted from somebody from the thousand years ago.  I don't live there anymore, so I shouldn't really complain. I'm living in the land of the free home of the brave and the home of music. Music comes from America. We give music to the world, this country, blues, jazz, bebop, rock and roll, country, gospel music. This is the land of music right here. And even to this day, we still give it out to the world. Everybody listens to this land when it comes to music. I don't want to talk about the other stuff. Where are you living at? America. No, somewhere in America. Long Island, New York is my home. We have a studio down in the land of Florida where we recorded our last album, Sonic Mojo. And yeah, it's a beautiful day here out in the island. I might even be able to get a walk-in today. Excellent. That show went to the gym yesterday, so it felt good. I got to tell you, I'm 57, so I grew up in the height of full-blown Fog Hat, you know? 79. Yeah, yeah, you did. 1971 Fog Hat starts. You lead Sailor Boy Brown with Lonesome Dave, you guys fire it up, and you get the cover of Willie Dixon's, I just want to make up for you, and you're off to the races, full 70s rock. Yeah, yeah. I know Sony Rock and Roll, but I like it. Yes, I do. That's another English band. Actually, we're three-quarters of America at the moment. Actually, now I'm in America. I just talk a little funny. This is my home. I love this country, and all the music that it's made over the years, it inspired me as a little kid living in Southwest London. I said, I want to go to America, and here I am. Thank you. Who was it that got you on the drums? Was it, you know, Zeppelin Bonzo, or is it way before that? Is it Ringo? Who is it? Way before that. Jerry Lee Lewis. My dad played the piano a little bit in somewhat the style of Fatswalla, you know, Honey Suckle Rose, and he brought him a single one day. He used to work at Aston Martins of their old plant in Felton, which is about two miles from where I grew up in Houndslove, Southwest London. And he played, he brought Jerry Lee Lewis's single Great Bulls of Fire. The B side was Mean Woman Blues, and he said, yeah, have a listen to this song, boy, you can really play the Joanna. And about two months later, dad took me and my best friend, Dave Hartensu, was the bass player. I was about 11 or 12 years old to see Jerry Lee Lewis in Southwest London. And I was never the same.  I'm not sure what an adult brain was, but I knew I wanted to be involved in music. I knew that's what I wanted to do. My older brother played piano, his name's Colin, he was four years older than me, and he helped by bringing home all the music from Sun Record Company, early Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash. I'm a Johnny Cash fan. What can I tell you? I was 12, 13 years old, riding my bike to school, and I'd be singing Johnny Cash songs. Nobody in my school knew who Johnny Cash was. I did. You know what I loved about Johnny Cash? His songs, it was always a story. There was always to rhythm, great rhythm, even though he didn't have a drummer, but his early stuff on Sun Records was like rhythm. And there was a story. I didn't even know what the stories were all about that thing. I'm 12 years old. What do you know about? Is the water, papa, reprieve died and rising? I had no idea what that meant. Or I won't sing Johnny Cash songs. I won't do them justice. Anyway, enough to say. I'm a Johnny Cash fan. So Johnny Cash, you're getting into American rock and roll, and then the Beatles hit, of course. At what point do you get a drum kit? And why drums? Why not guitar or piano or bass or anything? What drew you to that? Actually, I did start playing the piano at first. I can play a 12 bar somewhat in the key of C. My brother played piano. He's four years old with me. My dad played piano. And apart from that, drums are louder. Actually, as growing up, even before I even knew I wanted to be a musician, there was always music in our house. My dad, the radio, the record player, we had a Grundy tape player that we record stuff off the radio. There was always music. And I wanted to be, I loved songs and music. I just gravitated to the drums because I was always banging on the good China with knives and forks. Lampshades were a symbol. And Mum used to call me. The noisy sod is always banging on something. Actually, I had fantastic parents. We weren't rich by any stretch, but never went hungry. They always encouraged me in anything I wanted to do, whether it was like running or whether it was like in music. And I played drums in a great rock and roll band. Doesn't get a lot better. Unbelievable, man.  Once you get the drum kit and everything, how fast does it really start to happen for you, like Savoy Brown? Because Savoy Brown is one of those bands that was around during the late 60s, 70s, but never really seemed to hit it, but they would always be that opener for like Ted Nugent or ACDC when they came through. Nothing wrong with ACDC. I got my first drum kit when I was 15. I've been taking drum lessons for about three years. I used to work after school three nights a week and Saturday mornings in a bakery. And Saturday afternoons, I'd take drum lessons. I joined my first band when I was 16, maybe 17, with three guys I used to go to school with. Ray Dorsett was the lead singer. My best friend was Dave, the bass player. He got me in the band. And then I started playing drums. Got my first audition with Savoy Brown when I was 19. Didn't pass the audition the first time. They called me back a couple of months later because the drummer that they had couldn't play a shuffle. Can't join a booze band if you can't play a shuffle. And off I went. What was the question? I was asking how... Whoa. Sounded like a bomb just went off, I'll say. Well, that was crazy. Where are you? I'm in Los Angeles. That was nuts. earthquake? No, it was a sonic boom, man. Like you can't believe.  The show must go on. There could be hell going on. It could be hell going on right outside my door. I remember one time I was out in LA. This is in the mid 80s. In fact, I was playing down south in San Juan Capistrano where we just did a show. And I'm sitting in this restaurant, I was like, bang, I thought a truck had hit it. And the waitress goes, earthquake carries on. Like, earthquake. Yeah, yeah.  Yeah. Actually, I've always enjoyed myself. I lived there briefly. There was a young lady I was going out with. Actually, she was older than me. Other than that, I've always enjoyed going there. The audiences have always been fantastic. We just did a record release party at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano. We had, we played eight songs from our album, the new album, Sonic Mojo. And the people were just fantastic. You know, you've got to be pretty brave. Like, you know, we've got, hold on a second. Oh, yeah. Look at that. Look at that. You know why I'm wearing the new Sonic Mojo hoodie? Because it's clean.  I'm a drummer in a rock and roll band. I swear, I don't perspire. Yeah. So, you know, I always enjoyed playing in LA. And this was last Friday. It was fantastic at the Coach House. We had a great time. People were fantastic. Oh, I had fun in a box. I might find it out one day. I love that you've just been playing your whole life, you know, because throughout the Fog Hat history, of course, people, it's interesting to think people will retire like we tour too much. I retire. And then they would come back like five years later and get back into Fog Hat and then retire again.  No, I never quit. You know, I remember 1984, Lonesome Dave decided to move back to England. I didn't. I carried on playing. You don't replace somebody like Lonesome Dave, but, you know, we needed a singer. But, you know, yeah, it's tough. I've been fortunate. The good Lord hasn't seen fit to take me just yet and I'm grateful for that. I'm one of those fortunate few in this world that gets to earn a living doing something I love.  I mean, it doesn't get a lot better than that. Well, it might do for some, but for me, I like what I do. I know it's only rock and roll, but I like it. I keep singing Rolling Stones songs. Have you heard the Rolling Stones new album? I'll tell you what, it's fantastic, man. Fantastic. It's great. Well, hold on a second. Sonic Moja, your new record sounds great, man. I was digging into it right there. Thank you. A little bit of everything driving on.  Now, when you play, say, out on the road now, you said you just played the coach house and you played eight songs. And then, of course, you've, you've got to play the big, big hits that were all, you know, came about, I would say in the 70s, that the formula was, and it was like an unexpected formula, became the live album, Kiss Alive One, Peter Frampton Comes Alive, Fog Hat Live, ACDC, If You Want Blood, all the live records. Isn't that interesting that it was a live format that really exploded the bands? They could have three, four records out and then really hit. With us, actually, the fall for the city album was probably the biggest selling album, but all our records went gold or platinum.  But I remember doing the live album, Rod and Dave, who were the main writers in the band, I think we're struggling a little bit because we've been making, by that time, we'd had like seven hours of something like that. And I was listening to, every night after we played, my sound engineer, Bob Coffey, would give me a cassette. Cassettes, that's how long ago it was. And I, just to check on the, you know, make sure the tempos were cool and everything was like working, right? Because back then in the 70s, it was youthful experience, youthful energy, youthful, oh, we were youthful. Anyway, and it was the band was sounding great. And I was one who suggested that we do a live album. Nick Jameson, our longtime producer and friend, also bass player on the call for the city album, produced it. And yeah, it was a good record. There's only 25 minutes or 30 minutes of music on there, I think six songs. We were, I know we were playing for about at least an hour and a half at the time. So there's another hour of music hidden in Warner Brothers Voughts out in LA. I wanted to go down and see them one time and pull it out so we could have another live album from the 70s. And they said, we can't go down there. And I said, well, why not? They said, nobody goes down there. I said, exactly. Maybe you should let me go down there and find it. And they said, sorry, there's a black, I don't know, Warner Brothers called for it. Never mind. Let me ask you about that. It was only a six song record. It's really technically kind of an EP. 38 minutes, you know, back then because people were doing double live albums and everything. What was the decision on that? Was it Warner Brothers to try to keep it cheap? Like now we're just going to put out these hits and get it out there. What was that? I've got no idea. I wasn't in charge then. Not that I'm in charge now. I have a fantastic manager. She's great. She does everything, takes care of everything, makes sure everything works. I don't, I think it was probably Warner Brothers. Like I said, there's at least another hour of music that we were doing then. And it would be fantastic if they decided to find it in the boards. On one condition, that Nick Jameson mixes it and produces it where he produced all this stuff. There was probably three or four, maybe five or six shows that we did recording at that time. And those songs came from two shows from Joe Moreno, Rochester and Syracuse. Yeah. Now, here's my question on that because over the years, you know, you realize a lot of the bands I've had on here, they've said, well, it's not really a live album. We recorded some of the tracks then we overdubbed or the vocals were off or the sound was weird that night. Is it an actual authentic live record? Yeah, of course it is. Maybe there was a couple of vocals we had to do parts of because the mic went out or something. Maybe Dave bumped into it. No, it's a live record. We can play. In fact, we've had numerous live records out over the years. There was some from radio recordings that we did. We played live in the studio on a radio. They put that out. That was, I forget who that was. There's been a couple of times. Actually, since Lonesome Dave passed 21, 21, 22 years ago, we've had four studio albums out and four live albums. We can play. We cut our teeth like in small clubs in London when I was growing up and Savoy Brown, of course. We can play. Oh, I know you can play. I was just saying sometimes things happen. They go, oh, the mobile truck didn't capture this. The audience isn't loud enough. We put some, I mean, there's words of kiss having Super Bowl 13 or whatever as the audience to beef it up. There were all kinds of tricks to have this killer live record. I'm sure Nick Jamison probably did a couple of tricks with whatever, but he is a brilliant producer and engineer, brilliant musician as well.  This person, Nick Jamison plays everything. He plays every instrument under the sun. He picks up a new instrument like an accordion or an oboe. In 10 minutes, he's playing it. Do you hate people like that? It's crazy, man. When I put it, everything. Yeah, and us mere mortals have to struggle all our lives to master one instrument or at least learn to play it well. I remember being in the sixth grade, maybe seventh, and I would go to the, I would go to the roller rink, the roller skating rink, and they had a time each night when you could skate as fast as you wanted. It was called speed skate. Okay. They would put on slow ride and me and my buddy, Mark Godderman, would hit the skating rink and just fly, man. And whenever I hear that song on the radio, which is daily, which is daily, I hear fun every day on the radio, which is awesome. I just go back to that skating rink and me just trucking along, man, you know. You know that, but that's part of the beauty of music. I think it reminds you of times, of moments in time. In fact, playing music, when you write a song or you play a song and you record it and go, all right, that's it. And you mix it and stuff. They're all, music is like a moment in time. I mean, Folk Hat is famous for sort of, well, for us anyway, for jamming. You know, we will do a four minute song in the studio. Next time we play it on stage, it's like seven minutes. Because when you're playing, it's, as Lonesome Dave used to say, do we have permission to jam? Yes. Yeah. Jamming is what made Folk Hat so great. And a lot of those bands right there, you know, Folk Hat, Sonic, Mojo. I feel like we're doing an infomercial. I know, I know, I know. Actually, we're just talking to the drummer with Folk Hat. I grew up in the Bay Area and a big part of my life that changed my life is The Day on the Greens by Bill Graham. And you headlined one in 1979. Can you tell me about that? Yeah. I love Bill Graham. I think he was one of the most incredible promoters, certainly in my lifetime, because we used to play at the film or East when I was in Savoy Brown, played the film or West. Bill Graham would always come into our dressing room and he'd say everything, okay guys, everything, you know, and back then we used to have our instruments in the dressing room.  And Bill Graham was quoted as saying, I think Folk Hat likes to sort of play music more than they'd like to breathe. Bill Graham was truly a great producer in Pasario. I mean, I remember one time we played in New York, we had Albert King and the Voices of Harlem Choir and Savoy Brown. We would play with Buddy Rich's big band or an eight piece band and somebody else and do a show with BB King. What was really cool was he would mix all sorts of music. So you've got a taste of stuff you might never hear.  Maybe because of people, maybe because promoters can't work like that. And maybe it wouldn't work like that.  And I love the men and I think, is he in the rock and roll hall of fame? He better be, he better be. I mean, you're right. That guy would do a show, it'd be Cheech and Chong, Miles Davis and Zeppelin. You know what I mean? And it'd be, and people were there for the ride, man. Yeah, right. Exactly. You know, Bill Graham was a rare man amongst men and a great promoter. And yeah, I love the man. He was really cool. Tell me about that, Dan the Green. It was you, Fog Hat, Gamma, which is, of course, Ronnie Montrose is banned after Montrose. And you guys had nine and it was 1979. And that was the peak of his stadium concerts, which was, you know, Dan the Greens. Yeah, it was great. In fact, I became good friends with Ronnie Montrose. And also when he had Montrose, we did a whole bunch of tours with Montrose. And yeah, it was, it was fantastic. It sounded great. The people were great. San Francisco. No, it's not San Francisco, across the bay. San Francisco like, stop it, Roger. No, it's the bay area, right? There's a beautiful part of the world actually. So it was fantastic. I mean, shows are shows. I mean, I can't ever remember not having, not enjoying a show.  I don't remember there. Sometimes maybe something would go wrong, but you know, like an amp would blow up or fall over. We had that on the ship one time. We did a cruise about seven or eight years ago. It was really windy. Two Marshall stacks fell over on stage. We were up on the deck. Yeah, that was fun. Dan the Green, another great Bill Graham show. I remember going to see the Who, where was it? The Cow Palace, I think. Oh, yeah. With the horse tranquilizer. And Keith, the other night, Keith fell over. Yeah. Dave and I went there. I think it was, we had a day off and most of Dave and I went to see, I was always a fan of the who used to see him when they were around London in the eating club and marquee and stuff like that. And they started playing, but you couldn't hear Keith Moon. And Moonie was like flailing away. It looked like he was flailing away on the drums. He was sort of doing this. Couldn't hear him. And after, and I think it was a quadrophenia or something. And it really sounded bad. And Dave and I said, it wasn't, it wasn't very good. So we left. And then that was afterwards I heard that Pete then asked if somebody could come up and play drums. That was my big chance. Oh man. Crazy. You would have been there. But I did, over the years, I played that a couple of times with the Who. When I was in Savoy Brown, we did a, played a ballroom down on the South Coast. It was during the Pictures of Lily tour. That was the drum kit that Keith, that Moonie had. And Savoy Brown had finished setting up in front. And I was sitting there like fiddling with something. Keith Moon came in in a big parcel under his arm. And he went up to his, we said, hello. And then he started putting symbols up on his symbol stands. And he says, yeah, you want one? He gave me a symbol with moon on it. There's nothing wrong with it. It was no cracks or anything. It was just dirty. And he carried on around his drum kit. I had a couple of 18 or 20 inch crash. And then he gave me a 22 inch ride symbol. This is when I was earning 12 pounds 50 a week when I was in Savoy Brown, which was probably about 20 bucks a week in 1969, 1970, something like that. And Moonie just gave me probably $1,000 worth of symbols or a thousand pounds worth of symbols. He endeared himself to me that day. I got up and played with them three or four times, three times. Magic bus. That was, I get up and play the floor, one of the floor tomtoms and the symbol. And then Moonie would like kick the drums over. That was time to depart. Didn't want to get involved in any of that sort of nonsense.  I used to go and see them at the evening club regularly. And they were fantastic. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Sonic Mojo, Foghats new album. Let me ask you a little bit about the, you were talking about Johnny Cash earlier. And we all know Rick Rubin went in and refired up Johnny Cash's career late in his life. And he also came to you guys in 1993 to possibly do a record together. Can you talk to me about that? I had no real knowledge of that. David moved back to England in 1984. He came back in 1991, put a band together. Manager at the time was in charge of that. It didn't happen. I don't know why. Maybe Rick Rubin was busy with, I know he did Johnny Cash's album. I think he did a record with Mick Jagger. I don't know. I had no knowledge of that. I'm not in, I'm still not in charge now, but I have knowledge of what's going on with this band. Back then it was like, I was just glad we got the original band back together and David returned from England to start playing again. That was when we did the Return of the Boogie Men album. Right. Right. There it is. We are, we are, our manager is in the process of looking at re-release in their on Foghats records of course. Actually it was a really good record. I was really pleased with a bunch of the stuff on there. Actually Nick James once again was the engineer. There we are. I don't think you can find it anywhere at the moment, but we're going to re-release that. Let's talk about Charlie Hunt. He came in and he is fantastic. I saw him in 1978 with Ted Nugent and I was so young. I thought it was Derrick St. Holmes and then years later I realized, oh that wasn't Derrick. It was Charlie Hunt and he is unreal and just a killer, killer singer. Now once you get him, he retired in 22, but how did that go about? How did you get him? Did you just call him up? Well, what happened was that I was from Dave Past and a number of people had sent me tapes and CDs. It was actually tapes back then. I wanted to take a break just to try and figure out what I was going to do, but I did a show when Charlie was singing for Humble Pie in Toledo, Ohio. Dave was alive and we were headlining and they were opening up for us. Dave and I were good friends with the folks in Humble Pie. Stevie Marriott was probably one of the greatest singers to ever come out of England. We did tons of tours with him and I love Stevie. We would hang out a lot of times. He was dangerous to hang out with actually. I would often end up on the one with the carpet. Anyway, that's another story. Charlie Hewn is singing with Humble Pie. Now they started off, didn't sound all that good. The drummer was playing, but it just didn't sound very good. Dave and I were standing at the stage because we wanted to check out this guy who was singing our mate Stevie Marriott's tunes. Charlie started singing and I said, whoa, this guy's got a voice. After Dave passed, I talked to our road manager, Mike at the time. I said, Mike, you think you could find that singer who sang with Humble Pie? He said, yeah. I said, let me know if you get in touch with him. Yeah. That was Mike. He got in touch with Charlie. I talked to him. I asked him if he was interested in singing with the band. He was still doing some dates with Humble Pie. I sent him about 20 or 30 Folk Hat tunes. I remember at the time, my girlfriend said, you think that's rather a lot of songs? I said, if he wants to be in the band, you'll learn them. Charlie called me up about two months later and said, I got it. He came to my house out here in Long Island. Actually, it's a health boat. It's not very big, but it's home. It sounded like Humble Pie had joined Folk Hat, which I thought was really cool at the time. It was rather sad to know when Charlie decided to leave. I think it was probably because he just, his voice, it's hard to sing in that range that Folk Hat does it in certainly Humble Pie's range. I know if we do a couple of days in a row, it would be, he would struggle and then travel in and on the road can wear you down. I think he had, he was having some problems with his hips because he was an avid downhill skier. The weird part about it was he sent an email to our manager three days before we were supposed to get, start rehearsing for the tour, January, I think, and said that he was retiring and he wouldn't be at rehearsals, which is kind of weird. And then he put it on his Facebook that he was leaving Folk Hat and we had dates a week from there. So that was like dealing with a nightmare. And I haven't heard from him since. So if you hear from Charlie, tell him to give me a call. We played together for 20 years and like, not a peak. Doesn't talk to me. Doesn't talk to anybody. I don't think you're Rodney or Brian. It's kind of weird. It is weird. Yeah. I talked to my mates, even the ones that have passed on. In fact, I had a word with an old friend of mine, Billy Davis, this morning who passed on a number of years back. He was a good friend and sang with me when I had a band. And I talked to him today and started working on a song. Let me ask you, being a drummer, I've had many, many drummers on and I've played music a long time in my life.   Record deals. No, the record deals were fine. No problem. It was our first manager. It was a thieving scumbag. Oh, no, our first record deal, publishing deal was the writer would get, you have like a hundred percent of publishing. The writer would get 50% and the other 50% would be split up between the writers. Also, the record company would take a percentage of that. But then about the middle of 70, something, 76, 77. I wasn't paying attention. I was just happy sort of doing what I was doing. Manager took me out of it. He's no longer our manager. He's an ugly, unhappy human being. But I'm still here. I'm still playing in a rock and roll band. I'm having the time of life. I play with a great band. Scott Holt joined us two years ago, but I've known him since 2014. He is an incredible musician and a great bandmate. Brian Bassett, our long time guitar player and producer and engineer. He's actually played in Folk Affinity 27 years now. Lonesome Dave introduced him to us. Rodney O'Quinn, our bass player, has been with us for seven years. We stole him from the Pat Travers band. I actually called up Pat and said, is it all right if we steal your bass player? He said, okay. Well, I don't think he was working at the time. That's all right. Thank you. We're a band. Well, actually this year, we've probably got twice as many dates already lined up as we normally have. What is it? November now? Yes, we do 60, 70 shows a year. Life is great. Sonic Mojo, the new record. It's really got a ZZ Top feel to me. I listened to it from top to bottom. It has a fog hat essence, but it definitely has some ZZ Top flavor in there. Well, ZZ Top's just a little old blues band from Texas. The blues is the basis for every form of music that's come out, as far as I'm concerned. The blues got jazz and then jazz got bebop and bebop got rock and roll.  We've been influenced by the blues and rock and roll ever since I was this and the same with everybody else in this band. Let me read you something. Yep. Sonic Mojo. Sonic. A frequency within the audibility range of the human ear of waves and vibrations. All right. Mojo. A charm or amulet thought to have magic powers. Do you think there's magic in music? I know there's magic in music. Oh, it's kept me alive. It's kept me alive. Yeah, same. Same here. You know, old stone blue rock and roll helped me through. Let's talk about your drum kit. What are you playing these days? Sonar, Pearl, Tama. What do you play? There's only one drum kit to play, DW. Drum workshop. Made in America for Americans. They let Limies and other people use them too. DW drums are handmade by people who are fastidious about how they're finished and made. I use DWs all the time. Most of the time, I bring my snare drum, my pedals, DW pedals, of course, and cymbals on the road. And I get a DW kit to my specs. And actually, it doesn't really matter what size they are. They sound great. If anybody gets a chance to go to a drum workshop out in California and to visit the place, and it's absolutely incredible what they do. And I use pasty cymbals. Though they're not made in America, they're made in Switzerland. And there's nothing wrong with the Swiss. Also, a number of great drummers over the years have used them. Actually, cymbals are fascinating because every make of cymbal out, be it Zorgians or Sabians or some of the other cymbals that makers that are out there, they all have a very distinct sound. One of the great things for me, anyway, about pasty cymbals is that, you know, if I break like a dark crash, an 18 inch dark crash, they'll send me another one. And it sounds just like the one that was broken, but new. If I got a 22 inch custom ride, the crack, which I did, I kept it, I just didn't want to give it up because they had put the FogHat logo on it, but it was beat to shit. It was cracked all over. I got a new one just before we played our two show release party shows. Sounded just like the other one I had. That's the beauty of pasty cymbals. Now, other cymbal makers are fantastic sounding cymbals, but they vary. So the real cool thing is to go to the cymbal company and say, I'll need to try them out. Pasty cymbals, I just reorder or let them know that I broke one or I say, do you have anything new out there? And they go, yeah, we've got one of these rods. You want to try it? I go, yeah. I am so fortunate with the cymbals that I use and the drums that I use. They take really good care of me. When I'm out on the road, if I have an issue with something, I get what I need so that I can perform at them. The very best of my ability, DW drums and pasty cymbals. I endorse them. Oh, and promo drumsticks. They let the wood chopper have a ball. Oh, man. I love DW. My buddy, Dave Hewitz, just designed a new snare for them. And it just came out last week. And they're out there in Ventura, California, you know, Bozio, when I was young, he was like the first guy I knew that was playing the DWs, you know. And yeah, they kill it, man. DW is fantastic. They are a fantastic instrument. And what's really, really interesting, they really, really, you know, redefine the art of making drums. They really have, they can make, you know, when you have, let's say it's a wooden drum. And the drum has a note, a timbre. When you hit it, and they put it inside each of the drums, if it's an A flat or B sharp or something, like that, you could, they will actually or can make a drum kit for you of all the notes that you want the drums to be. I'm not that nuts about that. I mean, I can tune a drum and make it sound great as you don't have to work that hard with DWs. But just the fact that they can do that, they redefine the art of making drums. Can you tell that I'm a spokesman for the country, the company? They are the best. They are the best. I'll give you a story, a quick story. I was with Ludwig for the longest time. Bill Ludwig is still a good friend of mine. And Ludwig drummers were, how did my friend Bobby Rondinetti put it? They were the sound of our youth. They were the sound of drums for the last however many years, you know, three generations. And I was fortunate enough to be with Ludwig Drums for a while. But then they sold the company to a bunch of bean counters from Selma. And I would call up from the road like a stand or break or something. I was on the road traveling all the time. And I would get a machine. Nobody would call me back. They would never.  And I couldn't get through to anybody. And I played some DW drums in up in Boston at a music store up there. And they were fantastic.  So I went down to the factory in Oxnard. Is it Oxnard? Yes. John Good took me around the factory and I met everybody. And I'm looking and it's like, it's like a wonderland for a drummer. I mean, it's like, it's the most incredible place even a guitar players and piano players making drums. It's that cool. And then we went back. And then we went back to the office and we were talking and then John Good said to me, he said, so why, so why do you want to play DW DW drums? And I said, well, they're the best. And he said, okay, make a wish list. And I've been with them ever since. And yeah, there it was. You know what? I know how fortunate I am. Awesome. I'm looking at that fool for the city gold album behind you. It's just so amazing that record and to see that it's it's so cool. Do you have a lot of your stuff? Sonic Mojo. Yeah, this is my favorite buddy guy. Yeah, I'm I was a presenter at the Blues of Woods down in Memphis a couple of times. And I got to present a buddy guy who is just I don't I mean, I can't say I can't think of enough superlatives because I did see him the very first time I came over to the States in 1969 when I was in Savoy Brown. And I'd met him a number of times. Beautiful man. This night he won best song, best blues guitar player, best album. And my co presenter at the time said, this buddy guy play piano. He probably would have won that if he played it. And I've met him a number of times because Scott Holt, our lead singer and guitar player, played with buddy guy for 10 years, told him everything he knows. Yeah, we got some juice in this band. That's great. Well, you got a tour coming up for 2024 that promote the new record. Yeah. And we're rocking a roller around the country where you can go to foghat.com, find out where we're playing, who we're playing with, all the you can get hats and t shirts. Hold on a second. Actually, this is a hoodie. You find out all things fog hat. And we will be out there. I'm going to roll till I'm old and rock till I drop. Thank you again for talking about the record. Yeah, it was great to have you on. I'm particularly proud of this record. It was, I'm really, really happy with the way it turned out. We'll see you folks out on the road. We'll be rocking and rolling. I'm going to roll till I'm old and rock till I drop.  And I just absolutely love 70s rock, you know, fog hat, blue or silver. The record is 2023, 24, 23 rock. Hold on a second. Yeah. Yeah.  Do you see stand up comedy at all? Are you into it? I watched George Carlin last night. Amazing. No, he is.  I was crying with laughter. White men, they shouldn't be in blues band. They should be band. I'm sorry, I'm not. The blues, as far as I'm concerned, is the quintessence form of music. Without the blues, we would have no rock and roll. We would have no jazz. We would have no bebop. So without all those great blues musicians that stuck this, I would be out of work. I wouldn't have this running through my veins. I wouldn't have met Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker and Woody Dickson, probably one of the greatest men that ever lived. There would be no rock and roll if it wasn't for Woody Dickson and Chuck Berry as well. Well, actually, we'd all be out of work. All right, my man. Thank you so much for doing the show. That's my pleasure. Did I get it across? I'm a blues fan. Of course. There's another song. There's a song coming out. I know it's only rock and roll, but I like it. I like it. Yes, I do. That's another great record. Listen to the Stones' new album. It's great. It's fantastic. And so is your record. I put it on my record player as well. Thank you so much for doing the show. Roger Earl right there, a drummer, rock and roll legend from Fog Hat. Get the new record. See him out on tour. And do yourself a favor and go back and go through their catalog from 1972 to 2023 right now. They've been tearing it up. Thank you, my man. Dean, it's been a pleasure. Thank you, man. We'll see you out there. Okay. See you, buddy.


When Frontier decided to cancel the console version of Elite Dangerous Odyssey earlier this year many commanders were left high and dry. For those for whom buying a powerful gaming PC is simply not a practical option, the pain of not having access to Odyssey was further compounded when Fdev announced that horizons on consoles would be getting no further updates in the Odyssey era. But what many don't realise is that owning a powerful gaming PC isn't necessary to play Odyssey. In this video we'll take a look at why in fact you don't need to own a PC at all. If you enjoy our videos as always please do like, subscribe and ping that notification bell to see all our future content. To directly support the work we do here you can also join our Patreon, links to that and everything else you need are below. When reading the comments on our videos over the last few months it's become apparent that a good number of Elite Dangerous console commanders who wish to play Odyssey but can't because they don't own a powerful enough PC or simply don't own a PC at all don't realise that there is another option that may possibly be open to them. There is a caveat to this solution, you will need a really decent internet connection but it is a genuinely viable option to carry on into the next generation if that's available to you. The solution we're discussing today is Nvidia's GeForce Now game streaming service. If you're not familiar with GeForce Now or the concept of game streaming then it's actually quite simple. When you use GeForce Now to play a game your game is actually running on a PC in the cloud and a video stream of what you would be seeing where you sat at that PC is sent to you via the internet instead.  Because the cloud based PC is shouldering the burden of actually running the game the specifications of the device at the player's end which is in essence just streaming a video can be extremely low by comparison. GeForce Now supports the following platforms Mac OS 10.11 or higher, Windows PC running Windows 7 or higher, Chrome OS, Nvidia Shield TV, the Chrome browser or Microsoft Edge Browser, an Android phone or tablet, iPhone or iPad, Android TV and some Samsung or LG Smart TVs. For its connection to the internet GeForce Now requires at least 15 megabits per second for 720p at 60fps and 25 megabits per second for 1080p at 60fps. The service does sport a free option that offers just a 1 hour gaming slot per session so you can at the very least try it out without committing to further expense. For serious use it benefits from a subscription of £8.99 a month that will give you a maximum 6 hour slot per gaming session at up to 1080p and 60fps. There is a more expensive option that will give you an 8 hour slot with up to 4k resolution and 120fps on an Nvidia 3080 graphics card that comes in at £17.99 a month. Frontier are still offering their free account copy from console to the PC side as we've mentioned on this channel before that copy is completely consequence free for the console account it is a copy not a transfer. The road to this point in Odyssey's life has without a doubt been lined with pain coupled with the expansions problems at launch the loss of consoles into the next generation of the game came as a significant hammer blow but speaking from our own experiences Odyssey is now a great addition to the Elite Dangerous Experience and the opportunity to play on PC with some of our formerly console only friends in the community without them owning a PC has been fantastic. If you have the bandwidth and access to one of the supported platforms and think GeForce Now might offer a solution that could work for you get your account copied onto Steam link your GeForce Now and Steam accounts and you can give the system a go for free and decide if it works for you to get started you'll find everything you need linked in the description below this video that's it for now thanks very much for watching if you enjoyed this video consider subscribing to the channel and maybe take a look at one of our other videos linked on screen right now


Good morning everyone. Thank you for connecting on today's class. You will pray and get into the rest of the chapters from the Book of Acts. So I would like to request one of us to please lead with the word of prayer. Anyone? Finally, Father, thank you for this day. Lord, thank you for teaching us on through the last three and a half months. For your servant, Lord. Thank you for teaching us on the Acts. Acts and life of God. Lord, help us to emulate this truth in our lives, Father. Into our ministry. What you have learned in this class, Lord. It may work effectively in our lives where you minister in this part. They give you all the glory. We thank you and praise you. Even this morning, Lord, we recommend you to pass through into your head. And enter into the spirit. Speak to us Lord. Wonderful for that our life will be touched. In Jesus' name we pray. Just every one of us who was connected will be connected to us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Thank you, Brother Manohar, for leading us. We have been talking about the trial of Paul now. And my intention was really to complete the chapters. But then I realized that it is a little bit of a rush. So I will see how it goes. I do plan to complete it if it works out. But if it doesn't, we still have the next week's sessions with us. So we will see how it goes. We really don't want this to be just about finishing the potions. So let's begin from where we stopped. I think we had started with Acts 23. And we saw how the commander, when he witnessed this uproar against Paul in Jerusalem, Paul had gone to Jerusalem at the end of his third missionary journey. And one of the reasons why he had actually gone there was of course to worship because that was part of the culture of even the apostles, the leaders of the church at that time. But in addition to that, as the church leaders of Jerusalem suggested to Paul, they mentioned to him that he had a reputation for discrediting and dishonoring the rules and laws of the Jews. So they felt that if Paul can take this additional step to go and there were certain men who had vowed to God and if Paul could pay for their vows and just support that tradition which these four men were keeping that somehow this will allay all the wrong notions that people had about Paul that he was discrediting the Jews and he was siding the Gentiles. For that reason now Paul went up for prayer, Paul went up for the ritual to the temple in Jerusalem. But as soon as he went there, he was quite well known by then. He was well known for his work in the nearby regions of the Roman Empire. And suddenly people noticed that one of Paul's team members was an a an aficion. He's an Asian person and so they felt that Paul is actually bringing in non-Joseph into the temple and defiling the temple. So with this began the uproar against him and soon it was chaos to the extent that if somebody had not intervened in this situation where Paul is being accused he would have been beaten and who knows he could have even been murdered under this mob violence. But thankfully the commander of that time comes in. We've seen this in other places as well even in Ephesus. We've seen it in Corinth where if there is disorder in a province in a city in a region immediately in the Roman Empire they would kind of begin to rule over that place from the center. And so the local leaders did not want that and so they will try to bring a car. And that's exactly what they tried doing even in this uproar in Jerusalem. And so the commander takes charge of Paul and he wants to take him away. But at that point you know Paul requests and he says okay can I please speak to the people here in Hebrew. So he begins to speak in Hebrew. So then there's that connecting factor and he starts to narrate story of what exactly happened. So it's a very beautiful passage when we talk about the life of Apostle Paul. It's not like we have everything about his beginnings, his background, his work in one section. One particular book of the Bible or anything like that. We have to actually get the pieces of the puzzle and begin to paint the picture. So in chapter 21 we saw earlier on in Acts chapter 9 Luke wrote about the whole journey. About his persecution and all that and how exactly he encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus. But Acts 21 is another passage where you get some more pieces of Paul's journey. So he narrates it and he says that he was actually a Jew but then he was touched by the call of Jesus and he began to serve according to the call on his life and he explains. He goes to the point where he says that he began to share this word to the Gentiles. So that's the point where the crowd is unhappy with him because their perception of Paul in the first place was that he was defiling the temple by bringing in non-Jews. And now you have Paul mentioned Gentiles. So they are very upset and you know once again they are intending to tear him up. Thankfully you know again because of the commander they decide that he needs to be brought out protected and in the Roman Empire at that time they had different kinds of punishments for people who were under their custody and many of them they would just use their authority without being in line with the given law. So in this case you know Paul is accused but he is not convicted so they don't have the right to treat him like a convict but they scourging is what we read. So scourging is a way of beating up the prisoner with whips and in the Roman context beating up somebody with scourging was so bad that during those scourging people would die. So we can imagine what Paul was actually going through so he was in that situation but you know he has the wisdom of God in his life and he reveals to the person or the in charge over him that he is actually a Roman. Now this had many implications a Roman citizen could not be beaten up without convictions like they really needed a proved reason why they wanted to punish the prisoner. So when the person in charge heard this he ran to the commander and he explained and he said oh look he is saying that he is a Roman citizen now what do we do because it's illegal for us to beat up a Roman citizen and at that point you know the commander comes to inquire and he is amazed he is wondering how in the world is this individual how did he get Roman citizenship because Roman citizenship was very expensive to be purchased and if you were to go any other route to get your Roman citizenship that also was extremely difficult so the people who had Roman citizenship at that time where you could say privileged or lucky or you know sort of the cream of the society who could easily get the citizenship so they began to wonder how did Paul how did this prisoner how did this man who has so many people opposing him get the Roman citizenship but that was enough for the commander to feel insecure about what he had done he had already beaten up Paul which could work against him and so he really needed to now figure out how do we resolve the matter how do I escape the scene to ensure that you know I am not ill treated by the highest authorities of the Roman Empire so he comes up with this idea he feels that okay now that you know I am in this situation let me just wash my hands off and have Paul sent somewhere else and that way you know it basically the ball is no longer in my court so I am no longer responsible I just did the initial protecting you know a person from mob violence whether he is really a perpetrator of some sort of a crime whether he is the he will be convicted by the accusations which are brought by the Jews that is another question and so he writes to the governor of the province at that time the Judean province and he plans to send you know Paul to that place now before doing this he did try to call for an assembly of the Sanhedrin because he thought that okay that might bring this issue to a conclusion all these learned and reputed people in the Sanhedrin maybe they can take a call of whether or not the accusations are true about him so that's when you know acts 23 started and we saw how as he was brought into the council when he made a statement he said I'm in all good conscience before God until this day you know that was a statement which was quite provocative for the listeners because obviously if there's an individual who has good conscience before God and people he's blameless and so when Paul made a statement like that it was like telling the people in authority that I'm already there's nothing wrong with me and so that made Ananias the high priest very angry and Ananias he gives an instruction and says strike him on his mouth for a comment like this and when Paul is hit you know he of course gets very upset and he addresses this high priest as the whitewashed wall okay so that shows his anger and his rage at that point for you know without reason how can they do things like this and later he realizes that the person who gave that order was actually the high priest but you see actually speaking we can dwell many hours you know studying line by line you know as we are told that scripture all scripture is God inspired and that in all of scripture you know we can receive something for ourselves you know something to impact our spiritual work with the Lord whether it's correction reproof instruction so many things we can actually receive from scripture so over here one more thing that we notice is verse 5 of chapter 23 Paul says I did not know brethren that he was the high priest for it is written you shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people so it really goes to show us that here is a man who is doing the best that he can to live by the scriptures okay was he perfect I don't think so and you know human being is perfect even when we talk about Apostle Paul at the end of the day he was a human being but look at his heart that when he recognizes okay I accuse the high priest I did not know he's the high priest but we've been taught that we should not have an accusation against somebody who is in leadership he's willing to repent he's willing to repent okay so that is the beauty of it that this man and you will begin to notice later that shh Paul's trial if he was guilty it could have ended in a moment it could have ended in Jerusalem or it could have ended right under the hands of the commander but why this confusion why handing him you know from one place to the other and saying okay you decide no no you decide you decide because even by the law and in this case before the commander sends him to Caesarea you have high priest people who are aware of the scriptures even they are not able to concretely bring something up against Paul so it just goes to tell us that as a believer and even as a leader and Paul writes about this in so many other places give no offense give no offense to the Jews or the churches of God he's saying I do my best to live the right kind of life to have the right conscience whether it is before God or it is before men and when he knows that what he probably did just now was not in line with God's word you know accusing a leader among the people he is repentant of it and then you know later on we saw how he had to escape the situation so he recognizes okay part of the Sanhedrin you had the Pharisees the Sadducees and the bone of contention obviously is the issue on resurrection so he just says look what did I say I was just talking about you know I believe in resurrection and I don't think it's wrong you know something like that so when he said that the Pharisees took his side because he was a Pharisee at some point in his life and then of course you know the Sadducees opposed it there was even more chaos the kind of chaos that the commander had rescued him from in Jerusalem you know he's trying to rescue him over here also with the Sanhedrin council as the audience so that was unfortunate though so thinking about you know thinking about what exactly Paul must have felt at this point two things one is he would have felt relieved that he escaped being being it's not he was not afraid of being convicted because he had not done anything wrong but he realized that getting a fair trial that was not assured okay he was quite clear about that which is why he needed a way to get out of this council they were definitely not going to give him a fair trial so Paul was not afraid of being convicted but neither was he convinced of a fair trial so it's a sticky situation so to get out he brought this matter of resurrection and he comes out of it but you know what being the person that Paul was the passion which he had to share the gospel may be may be he would have felt in both of these instances that I missed an opportunity remember what was his passion he went around you know as you as you look at the number of cities that Paul traveled at least 40 different cities he went to how would he manage to you know make that journey unless he carried that fire in him to preach about Jesus and let people know about Jesus he definitely carried that fire and there was a promise on his life that he would be a speaker of the gospel to the Gentiles as well as leaders isn't it so that was a promise on his life he did get an opportunity in the temple to talk to the Jews the Jewish audience and part of the Jewish audience would have been influencers and now this was an incredible opportunity standing in front of the Sanhedrin where he could preach about Jesus but both of these opportunities were in a sense missed by Paul because there was no conclusion there was no conclusion he was not able to really bring them to a place where he could give them a call and say okay do you believe in Jesus this is who Jesus is he is the Christ and you know he paid for our sins and he bought our redemption so this is how it went and now there is a plot against Paul and I think Christopher read this passage if you all remember so shall I just explain it instead of reading it again I think we read from verse 11 to verse 22 okay so I'll just share what is in this portion now every verse is very rich with revelation even as we start with verse 11 okay so we have now seen Paul has escaped the commotion of the Sanhedrin okay what next he should have been happy that you know that situation of persecution he was able to come out of that but in the night okay it seems like like any other human being Paul was also under much stress he was under anxiety because verse 11 says but the following night the Lord stood by him and said be of good cheer Paul for as you have testified for me in Jerusalem so you must also bear witness at Rome okay now when does God say be of good cheer anyone any opinions or any ideas why would God need to say be of good cheer or when have you seen in passages of scripture of God saying be of good cheer yes say one very good example was Joshua where God told him that he should not be afraid there should be of good courage so we see similarity here between Paul and Joshua because Joshua was about to take upon a leadership role that was bigger than him and for Paul here for Jesus to have appeared to him we usually don't see this we've not seen this in a while reading through scripture but for Jesus to have appeared to Paul it shows really that he must have been in fear anxiety and again it goes to show again his humanity just like he pointed out he's still a human being most times when we talk about Paul we talk about him as a super Christian as if he's not also someone like us you know kind of but who grew in his faith and did miraculous stuff so basically this was a time that he was most likely perplexed and the Lord Jesus Christ appeared and encouraged him which he does for every one of us when we are down moments thank you yes thank you say for sharing and there are some comments here on our chat Kung says I have overcome the world Jesus telling his disciples Kennedy says when undergoing trials yeah so you know God is so faithful that he brings a word of encouragement when we most need it earlier even in Corinth remember there was an uproar against him people were shouting and screaming in the amphitheater and Paul was hearing these words it would have created you know a lot of fear within him and that's when God actually comes to him and says you know I have many people in the city it's not just you so be strong okay I'm with you I'm with you Paul and God is faithful whether it was a Joshua or the disciples of Jesus or Paul the Apostle and you know we can we can come up with so many other places where encouragement has come one or the other way but God is faithful and he knows our humanity and you see how Apostle Paul needed an affirmation and God himself it says the following night the Lord stood by him and said now he would have been under a lot of tension stress anxiety remember he was scorched few days earlier so his body was in pain he had a burning passion for the gospel in his heart you know so many things are going higher and he definitely needed that word from the Lord so the Lord stood by him it says so encouraging so encouraging so the Lord stood by him again we can talk so much about it what does it mean to see a vision did he have a dream did he actually see the Lord Jesus physically next to him we can speculate but the Lord stood by him and said we have good Paul having heard your own name so personal God is saying ok I know you I know you what you're going through Paul for as you have testified for me in Jerusalem ok see what could have been encouraging for God to say you will no longer have any difficulty Paul I'll remove all persecution oh God didn't promise that because that is the prophecy which he received isn't it chains await chains await me as I you know go towards Jerusalem and also Agabus he said the man whose belt this is he'd be bound so Paul knew all these trials everyone said don't go don't go Paul don't go Jesus is also not saying I am removing the persecution from you he never said that but he said we have good cheer what does he add to encourage you have an assignment waiting for you till that so what does it imply Jesus gives him a clue there he says as you have testified for me in Jerusalem so you must also bear witness at Rome so then Paul knows I'm not going to die till I go to Rome however long that is so let these people do whatever they want to do at least I know that God is giving me more ministry God is entrusting me with more work okay so you know the blessing for the faithful is more work or more assignment because the person who gave the work knows that it will get done and so they are willing to give more work and that's what Jesus is saying he's saying you testified for me in Jerusalem you must also bear witness at Rome Paul there is more work for you to do have a greater assignment you have to go to Rome till that time nothing is going to happen to you so don't worry okay so it's like telling him it's not over till it's over and so Paul is encouraged and then you know we saw later on that apparently there was a set of 40 assassins who were passionate about murdering Paul and they were getting ready to do that they had taken a vow saying either Paul dies or we die and they had started fasting because they took an oath they said we will not eat or drink till we have killed Paul so this kind of plot was against Paul rising up in Jerusalem and Paul had no idea but you see the grace of God Paul's nephew it says Paul's sister's son he heard about this plot against Paul and he goes and tells Paul Paul immediately let's tell his nephew why don't you go and inform the commander who is in charge of me and you know let's see what the commander does and so when he went and told the commander that's when the commander decided that okay this guy needs to be handed over now it's not safe anymore for Paul to be here in Jerusalem so let's make a plan and let's send him away to Caesarea and then you know a letter is written to be sent to Felix now Felix is the governor of the Judean province and he was in Caesarea which is why Paul was packed off to Caesarea so the commander writes a letter he from verse 23 now I think it might be helpful for us to read can somebody please read verses 23 to verses 35 of Acts 23 and he called into him two Centurions saying make ready 200 soldiers to go to Caesarea and horsemen three some and ten and spearmen 200 at the third hour of the night and provide the beast that they may set Paul on and bring him safe unto Felix the governor and he wrote a letter after this manner the Claudius Lysas unto the most excellent governor Felix ascended greeting this man was taken off of the Jews and should have been killed of them then I came then came I with an army and rescued him having understood that he was a Roman and when I would have known that known the cause where for they accused him I brought him forth into the under this council 20 till 28 the end of the passage okay who might perceive to be accused of questions of their law but to have nothing to lead to his charge worthy of death or the or of bones and when it was told me how that the Jews laid wait for the man I sent straight way to be and give command to his accusers and also to say before the what they had against him the farewell then the soldiers as it was command them took Paul and brought him by night and anti-patrice on the on the morrow they left the horsemen to go with him and return to the castle who then who when they came to a Caesarea and delivered their pistol to the governor presented Paul also before him sorry and when the governor had read the letter he came to know what provides he was and when he understood he was of Cilicia I will hear the and I will hear I will hear the said he when then accusers are also come and he commanded him to be kept in heroes judgment hall thank you thank you brother so here we we've seen how the commander is now going to transport Paul safely so that these 40 men you know don't are not able to accomplish the oath that they have taken one of the primary reasons is now whether Paul is a blasphemer or not that we will we will you know these these governors and leaders will figure out under trial one key thing which made everyone shudder is he's a Roman citizen okay and you could not a Roman citizen illegally and that was the reason they wanted to make sure that he was safe and alive before an accusation could be proved against him so the commander sort of in a rush he packs him off he has 200 foot soldiers why 200 foot soldiers it is said that till that place right anti-patris there where it will there were people who would just kill with the sword you know even if people were walking through that region many would get murdered so it was very unsafe for for various reasons and they did not want anything to happen to Paul so they made sure one is send foot soldiers to keep him safe and transport him by night so that you know those 40 men have no idea and he wrote a letter to the governor Felix and he wanted to send away Paul to Caesarea so that's that's what you know we have seen so far so now Paul is handed over and now when Felix has to make so it was quite easy Felix based on the inputs that he had because he's an ex-person in authority he could have made a decision and said something like okay Paul you are innocent or Paul you are guilty but knowing a little bit about Felix the governor it is said that he was a very corrupt man and he was wanting to sit on the fence we will see in the next chapter that he will drag the trial of Paul for up to two years because he had an expectation from Paul as a corrupt governor he wanted you know maybe some money so if Paul would have given him money who knows he would have let him out of the prison but for that reason you will see that Felix will just drag the case he says okay you are from Cilicia that means that okay it's kind of a related region so we can judge over this case but we will do it slowly we will see we need proper evidence investigation so you know you have some people like that right just drag it even if you can make a decision so Felix being the corrupt governor that he is you know he sort of thinks of getting some money out of Paul okay say you have something to say yes Pastor I just had an observation it's not really in line with what we were talking about but I just thought we should take a cue from Paul you know Jesus had appeared to him encouraged him is he finds out about the Jewish leaders plotting to kill him I mean a radical Christian would have said Jesus has promised that I will go testify I don't need to fear anything but he takes advantage of the fact that there are things in the nature that the Lord has provided for us you know to be able to get to wherever we are going safely or accomplish whatever he has given us to do I just wanted us to draw a balance here that even if God has already promised it doesn't mean that we should just be careless about our lives this is Paul here we are learning from he tells his nephew to go inform the soldiers and he gets protection you know look at the number of soldiers I had to escort him you know to Syria so this just goes to show that there are things in the nature that we also need to do on our own side with the backing of Christ you know with us in whatever thing the Lord has actually called us to do I just thought we draw that balance and lesson from Paul thank you yes thank you say thank you for that observation very true so one of the things that we can learn as you rightly pointed out is Paul or the other believers for that matter did not you know take on persecution did not take on an unsafe environment to prove the strong conviction of their faith they didn't in other words it's like walking into a lion's den and saying you know I believe God will protect me they never did things like that so even here knowing that God will protect him and that he still has to go till Rome he could have been careless but he wasn't you know he was careful enough to escape the scene and now he is with Felix so let's now begin to read from Acts 24 and see what happens under the custody of Felix so let's read from verse 1 till verse 21 please anyone quite long but if you can read that will be good yes Asha please go ahead after five days the High Priest and Arayis came down with some orders and spokesman one turtle is being laid before the government with case against Paul when he had been summoned turtle has began to accuse him next to you we enjoy much peace since by your foresight most excellent Felix reforms are being made for this nation in every way and everywhere we accept this with all gratitude but to detain you no further I beg you and your kindness to hear us briefly for we have found this man at play one who stirs up riots among all the Jews throughout the world and a friend is a ringleader he even tried to fulfill the temple but we seized him by examining him yourself you will be able to find out from him about everything of which he accused him then he is also joining the charge affirming that all these things were so when the governor had noted to him this week Paul replied knowing that for many years you have been a judge over this nation I'll carefully make my defense you can verify that it's not more than 12 days since I went up to worship in Jerusalem and they did not find me disputing with anyone or stirring up a crowd either in the temple or in the synagogue or in the city neither can they prove to you what they now bring up against me but this I confess to you that according to the way which they call a said father's believing everything late on by the law and victim of the profits having a hope in God which this man then says accept that there will be a resurrection of both the chest and the unjust so I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man now after several years I came to bring alms to my nations and present offerings while I was doing this they found me purified in the temple without any crowd or tumble but some Jews from Asia they ought to be here before you and to make an accusation should they have anything against me or else like this man then said what film they had found when I stood before the council other than this one thing that I cried out while standing among them it is with respect to the resurrection that I am on child for you this day yes thank you Asha for reading this entire section so now we know that Paul is with Felix and he can make a decision however Felix invites Ananias the high priest if you recall this was the high priest who had ordered for Paul to be hit on his mouth so why is Felix doing this basically he is trying to get more evidence he is trying to investigate the case in a more holistic manner so he wants the opinions of every side and all of that so he invites Ananias the high priest when he comes down with the elders but during those times in trials they would also have it says orator here but more like a lawyer so there was somebody to speak the offensive against Paul by the name of turtleist he puts out this whole he puts out his issue with Paul but he begins by doing his usual way of flattering the governor so he says so many things like we have enjoyed great peace and prosperity which was brought to this nation by your foresight so it is all a learned way of talking during those days and no wonder this man turtleist was an orator so he begins that way and then he starts to share that Paul in verse 5 he says we have found this man a plague a creator of dissension among all the Jews throughout the world and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes so Paul is being accused of someone who brought about dissension confusion and notice he says a ringleader of the sect of Nazarenes so there is no connection of Nazareth to Paul except that he follows Jesus of Nazareth but Nazareth among all the cities of the Roman Empire it was one of the backward cities so the moment you said Nazareth and somebody from Nazareth it would be something to condemn or look down upon and so that is the reason he is trying to leave Paul and Nazareth together and he says he is a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes he even tried to perfect the temple and we seized him and wanted to judge him according to Avila so notice there is an accusation but nothing factual now they need to prove everything that they are saying but maybe because of the culture of those times and the corruption anyone could get away saying anything and that is what they are trying against Paul yes they are saying he stirred up dissension and that he tried to defile the temple but what are the facts it's not like Felix is also asking for any facts so said all these things and for Paul there is nobody like an orator to speak for him he is all by himself but thank God you know for the wisdom and the courage that Paul has in trial he begins to give a difference for himself he starts sharing narrating I am not going to go over all the small details over there because you know we already know that he is talking about how he came to believe in God and how he is also saying like Felix I have hope in God so he is trying to remind Felix look this is what the scriptures say and finally we are seeing the fulfilment of those scriptures and I have hope in what you know the scriptures talk about so I don't see what exactly is wrong with me so in verse 15 he says I have hope in God which they themselves also accept that there will be a resurrection of the dead both of the just and the unjust verse 16 this being so I myself always strive to have a conscience without offence toward God and men so he is trying to say look I am doing my best to have faith in what the scriptures say they talk about resurrection they give us a hope and all of that and I am just doing my bit believing it and I had only gone to the temple to for the purification ritual so I didn't go there with any intention of creating a dissension ok so here is the session in front of Felix what was stating his thing and Paul stating his thing and we can later on see when we come back you know how what Felix does whether he takes a comment or not and you know how the case actually proceeds so let's take 10 minutes and shall come back after that