You're listening to barbell logic brought to you by barbell logic online coaching where each week We take a systematic walk through strength training and the refining power of voluntary heart show Welcome to the barbell logic podcast. It is a Sunday principles edition. I am Matt Reynolds I usually hear my brother Chris is with me I'm actually really excited for this show and let me tell you why I'm I think I'm excited although I may be wrong in In the past I we have done shows Scott and I have done shows way back I think in like the 40s episode in the lake the 40 episode more like at 320 or something now Where we talked about things that bring us value and things that rob us of value and I want to be clear when we say value We don't literally mean monetary value although certainly some things might in fact bring you monetary value We're really talking about joy and I've said this I don't want to play Semantics too much, but but I have And I this is not mine. I'm stealing it from a guy. I really like but I Don't think of joy and happiness is the same thing. I Think of happiness as fleeting is something that doesn't last Our grandma grandma Peggy is sick and dying right now as a matter of fact by the time this comes out You and I will have lost our last grandma. It's kind of sad to think about and and so Our mom got called down to she flew down to Houston Yesterday to go be with her mom on her last days it appears. She's had a stroke and whatnot and so My mom is not happy today But our mom can still have joy at what the things are that bring her value And so to me these things that bring us joy bring us value bring us value regardless of our Situation in life and happiness is often more fleeting right if I stub my toe real hard or like the day that Kinsley broke her arm When we were all down at big Cedar Lodge like I'm not happy at all But like I can still be joyful in a lot of those things like it's not about like this fleeting thing that happens this afternoon right these are things that kind of Work whether whether I'm super happy or not and so one of the things that I'm excited about in this episode is I I'm assuming Hashtag not a fan that Chris Reynolds has not listened to that episode in the 40s to hear my specific things that I listed That were things that brought me value or robbed me of value. Is that true? That is true. Now, you're gonna know a lot of the things because you and I are really really close But I'm interested to see the direction you take this having not heard mine or Scott's to talk through some of those things so Take it away. You want to talk about the stuff that brings you value first You want to go back and forth? What is the format you'd like to take? That's a good question. I was thinking about that Let's hit a few things That are almost old and expired at this point that I don't even consider them anymore That robbed me of value. Okay But they were Look, I'm not even gonna pretend that I have a very close understanding of the common working Professional at this point life is that type of life has been gone for me for quite some time and so there are there are some complexities to that as things go along but When Matt and I started I mean like in life, we were literally quite literally in total poverty we grew up in in literally below the poverty line and and so You know, it's a it's a big move to go from there to the point of being retired at the age of 37 and And I've learned a lot along the way The one of the very first things that happened that I would consider sort of a luxury to remove Something that robbed me of joy was I stopped mowing my lawn so it's like so simple but like Goddamn it if every Saturday when you finally had a little bit of time to just sort of maybe Chill out and relax. You weren't out working on your lawn. Now some people love doing this. It actually brings them joy I and and that's okay, but I was never working on my lawn I was always trying to fix a broken lawnmower right for some period of time. We were broke. We didn't have nice Because we were broke so I was crappy lawnmowers. I'm trying to figure out how to you know And very figuring out how things work is fun once I know how they work And what I'm really doing is slicing my fingers open trying to work on the the motor of a of a of a push mower is not fun And so I got to the point where I realized that while it took me maybe a couple hours to knock out mowing my lawn paying somebody else to mow my lawn took them like 15 20 minutes and Didn't cost me very much and I got rid of that Many many many years ago and I say how long ago do you think you think when was the last time you mowed your lawn? It's been 10 years. Oh It's been longer than that. You hired people to mow your lawn in your early 20s. I guess then yeah, that's correct Yeah, as soon as the company took off enough that I $22 to pay somebody to mow your lawn That's right. I mean we sacrificed you know going to out to Taco Bell That's right a time or two right note in order to cover that have you noticed that there are people in your neighborhood We you know We both live in nice neighborhood sure you live in a little more of a spread out like you you've got kind of a Fairer you got a great big lot where your house is right right? My house are nice custom homes are not all that you know They're all different and stuff and we have tons of retired people But matter of fact most of my neighborhood is sort of upper-class retired people They all mow their lawns.  It's I mean four outside I talked to grandpa about it once you know and and he was like I like mowing my lawn and I was like great if you like mowing your lawn, you should mow your lawn. Yeah, I agreed I Don't and I'm glad I didn't do it. And so as soon as I got my Saturdays back You know the value the net value increased to me was absolutely more than the $22 of pay by far more than the $22 the second biggest thing was My wife and I have really never we don't fight much I mean like we have disagreements here and there on a few topics, but you never find us we don't escalate in Arguments or anything like that, but if there were arguments in our early marriage It was about the house. It was about cleaning the house because her threshold for things need to be clean is very very blow meaning that if There are a few things out. It's time to pick up right Whereas I can let things accumulate for a while until they really start irritating me and then so Unfortunately for her that would mean that she spent a lot of time picking things up, especially once we had kids so the next big thing for us was we had to get somebody to Clean the house like a once a week, you know in the evening, you know Somebody's doing the floors. Somebody's doing the windows.  No, join it whatsoever Also, we have slightly different standards about how to do things and so that would always be sort of an issue and it Disappeared sure the day after we so it was only a few years after hiring somebody to mow the lawn that we had advanced In in the world enough to be able to pay to have somebody come out and clean the house like once every Every other week, I think is is about what we typically do something like that And so those are two things that obviously completely robbed me of joy and value and the opportunity costs were massively There is far better for me. So my time so anything else very quickly I think what's interesting to note here is that in both of your first two examples You talked about the thing that you were having to do that robbed you of joy And my guess then is that then hiring those things out You actually needed to have your lawnmode and you needed to have your a clean house and probably having a mowed lawn and having a Clean house brings you joy and it now brings you joy to let someone else do that And so it's actually you took a thing that robbed you of joy and you replaced it with a thing that brought you joy that's right and Freed up time for the things that bring me the absolute most joy right which Which we can get into here in a minute. I think the more that I Look at my list here. I think I'm just gonna go through the robbers first We're just gonna have to all deal with all the things that robbed me of joy and then we can talk about those five joy We'll do that This this has been a long-standing thing for me And I think the more you I think it's very worthwhile to evaluate this I remember eating breakfast with you Matt and you and you bringing me your list of things that robbed you of joy and things That added joy, maybe it was an early list, but I think it's worth evaluating maybe semi-frequently because Those things change as you change over time and so this is one that you'll find interesting I am robbed by joy. I'm robbed of joy by reading the news. Yep. I hate the news I've come to decide that reading the news I think it may have been no seem to leave or something that said if you want to cure yourself forever of Feeling like you need to read the news just read last week's news for a year and Then you'll never do it again, right? Because what you realize is how many things are completely inconsequential and matter zero From that seemed a big deal critical the first 24 hours enormous Yeah, and the day like how are the headlines the headlines and you realize like everything about the news It's meant to get your eyeballs and it's meant to drive up your you know Your energy and and and create a rage machine. Of course, that's and when I say the news I'm not just talking about newspapers I'm talking about and newspaper sites. I'm even talking about things like Twitter and and other places a Facebook where people get news now. That's not to say those tools aren't valuable I still use Twitter from time to time. I kind of like it to do investment research sometimes There's a few little things like that but As far as reading that stuff just to get the news on daily basis because it's like fear of it's kind of like FOMO Right, it's a little bit of fear missing out on knowing what's going on like bullshit. I'm sorry You don't need to know all most of that stuff. Sure So reading the news robs me of joy, especially not a guy who at this point is hold up in his house and Retired like true. Who do you need to know? Who do you need to impress with your knowledge of the news at this point? Well, and the interesting thing is I mean, you know a lot of the I I'm in I was trying to mimic Some of what I had heard about the way that Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger do their investment work And they all you know always talked about reading newspapers. Well, it turns out I guess Munger doesn't really read many newspapers. He Immediately moves into a book the book. He's gonna read that brings me a ton of joy. We'll talk about that later But news articles, you know any more especially the world has changed dramatically a lot of the news being written that we read It was written by somebody who puts out 20 articles a Week now you tell me you tell me how high quality it could possibly be For someone who doesn't know what they're talking about to write 20 articles a week They're just looking for eyeballs and they're looking for you know headlines inability to be objective as well, right? That's yeah, and a billy ability read It's so I mean it jumps off the page just how slanted everything is that that's on every end of the spectrum on every end Absolutely The other thing is I would say that I am generally Robbed of value by most home improvement projects That wasn't the case in my early life I wanted to understand how everything worked in my house, so I remodeled the 1911 bungalow when I was in my 20s and I learned how to do also remodeled. Yes. Yeah You helped me finish that because you had already gotten you were doing well, and I was still broke I was still a teacher a shop teacher and I would come during the summers and help renovate that house Yeah, I wanted to get that thing finished and there was a lot to do But once I understood how everything worked like I wanted to understand how the plumbing worked and the hot water heater and the electricity and all those Once I understood how those things worked None of that was was of interest to me at all anymore So now when I have to have anything done at all in my house, I just hire somebody to do it The other thing is like everything you I've ever wanted to do you always think it's gonna take you 10 15 minutes on a home improvement project It takes it takes five times that and you ruin six things in the process fall through the ceiling break All the stuff. I mean like it's just it's miserable. So this is yours and so I want to encroach as little as possible It's been interesting for me I wonder is if if you can think back to when you were you were running the business several years ago For me. I also don't want to fix anything around my house The house that I'm currently sitting in I will hire everything out. I do kind of like working in my yard now I don't mow my lawn. I don't mind mow my lawn in April and May The problem is at some point it gets to be July don't mow my lawn right the rural land that we have I Find a lot of value going out there and doing manual labor, you know taking the chainsaw out and cutting down trees and stuff And here's why Takes my mind off everything Healthier than heroin Right like I don't have to think about the stuff And so I don't know if you had some Distraction type things that you did back when you ran the business, but for me I was thinking man I worked my ass off one day last week with Rachel I mean we we cut brush and we use the chainsaw and I thought to myself. I didn't think about one stressful thing I didn't think about the business. I didn't think about dad dying I didn't think about you know, I didn't think any of that stuff. I just ran a chainsaw in the moment You have to be in the moment. Yeah, it's wise to be in the moment when you're running. Yeah, in fact It is Yeah, but yeah, no, I you know and we even cleaned up the woods behind our house as well And and I enjoyed that so a little bit of of that type of but you're not installing a ceiling fan No, no, I'm not installing right now. Yeah, I will screw that up It'll it'll be so much worse than then it would be if a professional did it.  Don't want to physically go anywhere where I have to shop and Even really electronic shopping Unless it's for books, which I love I don't really probably want to do although you and I have gone the same direction now Where we use algorithm-based shopping for things like clothes That send us clothes that fit us and it is our style, right?  Yes Yes, yes, no, no, no, and they figured out and then you and then they just send you your clothes Yep, pretty sweet. Yeah, and I also have my wife will supplement that she loves shopping and it's all about fashion so she buys me things sometimes and And I'm like, yeah, that's great. She tends to know what I wear well, but I I don't want to do it I think it's miserable And this goes to this next one goes to like a whole thing related to the way that we just run our lives And that is shuttling kids to things that don't matter Is something I don't want to spend any time doing at all This goes to a general principle that I hold which is that our children the children of America Maybe the children of the world, but I don't know the children of the world that well But I know the children of America reasonably well are way way Overcommitted. I mean overcommitted to a degree that is good is mind-blowing and we don't do it We don't we don't participate in that business So when when people tell us, you know, like well, you know, we started out this morning So taking our kids to hockey practice and then we went from hockey practice to basketball practice And basketball practice is something I'm like fire. I would Yeah, literally die if I to do it. I would rather just not exist by the way than being that way How often do you think and I don't know right? We're the same way. We just we're just not doing that, right? Mike's experience as a public school teacher for 10 years tells me That it's not the kid that committed himself. Oh No, that's mom and dad. I'm gonna do it curiously through said kid. Absolutely.  They're kids seven They're wearing a an extra large-sized jersey with their kids number on it Yeah, and eye black Yeah, yeah, that's a problem I've seen I've seen like a cheerleading competition where the mother was literally physically moving her arms in each of the Of the movements that the cheerleader Down on the floor was doing and I'm just like it's everything about that makes me want to die. Yes, so not into that Oh, don't do that The last one this may be shocking. This is shocking to even some people who know me It robs me of value to compare or compete with anybody I don't like competing. Interesting. I am not it's really funny when we play games even as a family My favorite games are where the the family is playing a game to beat the game not each other I'm not looking for a number one and that is actually drives me crazy Now it does make sense if you if you go back to the podcast where we go over our personality Things I'm a peacemaker to me. That's just a whole hell of a lot of conflict that I don't need I refuse to play a game where Strategy cannot win Yeah, like ladders if all we're doing is like spinning stuff and rolling dice to see who wins I Refuse to play Yeah, yeah, I get that completely. I don't generally like games all that much anyway And I will play some and we play you know uno and stuff like that my kids are little And so there's only so many games we can play but also I don't for me and this this There's a side of this that adds a lot of value to to my life, which is the reverse of it It isn't I do not get joy out of competing with others. I get joy out of PRing myself Yeah, so when it comes to the weight room is a great example, I mean For me when you and I used to do powerlifting competitions or I only did one strongman competition But in all of those it really wasn't the other people on the floor that I cared about at all I did not care. I was out there to see if I could set my own PRs And if I could Awesome, and if I walked away the trophy great, but the trophy did not matter much to me It was could I beat myself? Yeah, that was the thing that I wanted to know And so, you know, that's that's sort of the the flip side of of all that Yeah, that's so those are the robbs Those are the things that robbed me of value that I could I could go through quickly Things that add me add value to my life Traveling for pleasure Traveling for business, but I did not enjoy very much by the way But traveling for pleasure or experiences probably the better way to say that is just experiences We realized a long time ago that life is just so much Better to spend money on experiences than it is to spend money on things and stuff We don't care about stuff But we do care a lot about experiences when I look back over the last You know five years back back in that era where people used to Congregate and be around each other. I know that's apparently never gonna happen again. I'm sorry I'm in the Northeast and I'm really Really getting tired of being in my house Rob's your value Yeah, right even as an intro last year we got to do you kind of want to go out and see some humans Yeah, yeah, it's weird. I mean if nothing else I just want to go be in in these cool places and travel and see the world and do the things that we were in the middle Yeah, I'm supposed to I was supposed to fly to Mexico tomorrow morning And I yeah, I'm not gonna get to do that now and my 20th anniversary is a week from today Yeah, we had a Miami trip that we missed we have a whole thing planned to go up into Maine We're still not sure if that's gonna happen and usually by this time of the year. We've taken two or three trips that are Fairly big and I missed that Obviously most of you will know this that reading books brings me an enormous amount of of joy and value although I Am time limited on that there is a point There's a law of diminishing return or law of diminishing utility I should probably say on reading books for me in that after some period of time of Continuously reading books. I start getting a little weird I need to like set the book down and get up and go talk to my wife and play with my kids or something and And that all goes this whole idea that is I've listed a little further down Which is probably the thing that brings me the most joy is just compounding my own Knowledge and personal growth whatever that is I love investing in Knowledge and wisdom and understanding things because those things help me understand and make sense of the world around me They help me maybe be halfway decent at predicting Things in uncertain circumstances, which is nice And so, you know, I would I would add to reading books things like I like to take online courses Usually I do them at like double speed or I'll watch videos at 1.75 x or something So that I can blast through some new thing and you know, I have we talked about I think it was last time that I was a programmer I mean, I still learn programming languages new ones Even now even with absolutely no reason to do it because I think it's fun. Yeah So I still do some of that Working out it has always been something that added a lot of of joy and value for me and It's funny from the time Matt and I were little It kind of it started when I was 10 I think I got that first plastic weight set from Walmart that the concrete dipped concrete dipped and I liked it then I liked everything about it. It just made me feel good I liked the you know, I liked all the all the elements to that and Even though there have been times in my life where I couldn't work out with a lot of consistency It didn't stop for an extended period of time really ever And and so I've just always really enjoyed that. I I love the way it makes me feel I know that it's it's an investment in the future because people who Work out have a little bit easier time dealing with things like depression as well as fighting off, you know Mental disorders for the future, which is a really good thing for you and me because it runs in the family So it's just a lot of big big value there and I absolutely love Love the time that I get to spend working out recently. I've combined that with working out with my wife she works out with me and That's made it even better.   So it's a made it quite a bit easier Yeah Yeah, so so those things do it a good movies. I am so Matt and I were talking earlier about shows Recently, I think I've run out of all the shows and that's just maybe a COVID-19 thing Like I've run out of almost every show that I wanted to watch because in the evening after Jane I put the kids down I would typically watch, you know We'd watch one or two shows together and I'm kind of getting to the point where I'm sick of that However, I love great movies, but they just take a lot longer to produce and right now. There's nobody Out that but I can go back and watch old movies and be super happy about it Got a ton of old movies that I love and and we'll still go back and watch Wes Anderson specifically. I'm a huge Wes Anderson fan Spending time with my wife This is not obligatory and my wife does not listen to this podcast So I'm not saying this so that I get points my wife and I are We both don't have a whole pile of of friends outside of our circle. It's just not something that we value And there's goods and bads to that. I know I had I had a Therapist at one point or another that told me that that was really really strange But it's always been that way. I'm I love my close family and But I've really not needed for a very very very long time part of this my own introversion I don't need anything more than the the close family that I have and spending time with my wife is Brings me a ton of joy when the kids go down at night Sometimes we'll forego the show and we'll just literally hang out. We'll just chat.  I Get a lot of value from teaching my kids stuff Matt and I were talking about earlier this as well as like this idea that Especially around things like history and we talked about this in a previous podcast Anchoring things like math and science into that history. I just like to watch my kids eyes light up And it takes a while you they have to get a little older My oldest son is sort of in that in that space my middle son is You know things that I like to learn to like it's so much fun He he's really into figurines the way that I was and Matt could tell you when I was a kid I played with GI Joe's yeah like Hours and hours and hours on end and my middle son is the same way And so when I told him that I thought I had figured out how we could get some plastic compounds and make our own Figurines out of plastic printer and stuff or like just we have yeah We have a 3d printer so we did some of that But we actually pour mold and make them and then he like he paints them makes a little weaponry for it and stuff And it's all material science, but he doesn't know he's learning material science. I just slowly feed it in there But I love it too, and I'm learning in that process as well, and I'm having an absolute blast doing I love doing that stuff Yeah, and really the last piece of this is we kind of hit this We kind of hit this in some of the higher-level things, but The biggest bulk of my time I like to spend in investing in My own knowledge of of stuff And that does come in a lot of different forms So it's not just books we talk about books a lot because you know There are these great condensed ways that people take you know 15 20 years of their life and put it into 250 pages and you can learn a lot But these days man, we have so many more opportunities than what our parents had You've got free online Courses that you can take from some of the best universities in the world and you can take them for free at your own pace There is no class at MIT or Cambridge, and it doesn't cost anything Right, you don't get official credit, but you get official education Yeah, it's it there's so there are just so many ways that you can grow and learn and the knowledge from biology ends up applying one way or the other to the knowledge that you have in Math and the knowledge that you have in investing and the knowledge that you're gonna have and that you build with human interaction, so I Get a lot of joy out of learning new things and understanding new concepts that help add clarity for me about the way the world works Because I really hate being confused about why people behave certain ways or why certain things happen When those questions pop up I have a tendency to rush rush to a book and start reading my way through it so that I can understand why that happens Yeah, I've watched you also you touch on this, but I know that you don't learn all of these things just to impress people I know that you learn them because you've always loved to learn But I've also watched the way your eyes light up and you get really excited and you really almost become like an extrovert When you're able to teach the things that you've learned So when there's a path thing that you're passionate about in the audience is right To watch you teach that you can tell there's a lot of joy there and being able to teach those things It freaks some people out in a in a like a party type setting or just when people are kind of milling about Because usually I won't be saying anything.   I just can't I have a very hard time with small talk And then they'll hit a topic Maybe by accident that is one that's very exciting to me I've recently been learning about and all of a sudden boom lights go on and then the poor people can't get away And sometimes Jenny has to like tug on my tug on my arm and be like, hey, it's kind of maybe time to let him go So that's good. But yeah, I definitely do that. I get extremely excited about the things I'm excited about and and I do love teaching teaching is is a blast I love it. I loved it when I when I was working one of my favorite things about being a high-level executive at a company Was that I could carve out time to teach my employees things That I knew would apply to their job and their life and would help them help them grow That was that was a great outlet to be able to use some of the knowledge I'd accumulated Yeah, I think for me it's the this podcast has done that better than almost anything else I mean when you when you run a podcast where essentially You and your podcast partner are the subject matter experts I've kind of said everything that I know about strength training, you know And so I think we're gonna see some more series coming up on the podcast where I Feature some more of my staff because they are subject matter experts Maybe in places where I'm not you know injury rehab and prevention or or training You know somebody like Jonathan Sullivan who talks about training athletes of aging like seniors or whatever those things are Where they are the subject matter experts and they're passionate about something that I don't know about and I want to learn It's it's but it's been a phenomenal outlet that at this point that kind of all of the things that I've learned all these years about strength training and then also how strength training has impacted my life in Ways that other people wouldn't be able to make that connection the podcast has been able to do for us as a matter of fact right now like I'm loving doing these principles series because So much of what we've learned You know you you were in the software business and you always kind of knew you were going in that route and I Transitioned out of teaching into the into the strength world of fitness business, but I was always Super passionate about strength, you know like it was always the thing it sucked because you were actually you actually were genetically more gifted than me at that stuff, but You liked to train But you didn't super like to like read everything there was to know about the thing like you read all this stuff Like you know you I remember you have an Arnold's encyclopedia of bodybuilding back in the mid 80s when like there wasn't anything else out Right like that was the thing that book did not end up being very scientific No, it was not but I mean when you're a kid that's the kind of stuff like, you know, we read that stuff But and so it's it's it's provided this great outlet for me as well to be able to talk through those things It's been it's been really fun And so now to continue to find people who are on our staff and on our team and part of they understand Ethos at Barba logic has been really really cool And then and then the way all of those things have affected My life as a as a dad as a boss as a husband as a as a citizen as you know We can talk about those things in the principles podcast has been really cool and and the reason this series really kind of came to be was because Especially now that you've moved away a couple years ago up to Boston. We were close. We've been close pretty much our whole life and There were far less opportunities for us to get together and have these discussions and we would sit at Home at Thanksgiving or Christmas, you know when you would come back to Springfield or when we would fly to Boston They're like our family our mom and sister. So they'd be like I can just listen you guys for hours the two of us just we'll just talk for like four straight hours And we're just kind of feeding off each other and so That's kind of how this came to be. So it's actually it's this this part This this series has brought a lot of joy to my life, too I'm excited about we got a list of 80 more things to talk about on the ground. There's always more things You know, it's funny. I think in fact after doing 320 podcasts all in strength training There aren't always more things like at some point there will actually be a thing where we'll be like, uh We talked about all the principles that matter, right? Like you could always come up with stuff, but there will be a point if we do one of these a week For two years, that'll be a hundred. Well, we will have done a hundred and four of these 104 major life-driving principles at that point. We're probably gonna start going who We're gonna start struggling with the list And that's okay because like what's the point of doing the thing like I'm excited that we get to help our listeners today But you know, I'm really excited about Ten years from now our kids being able to listen to this and if if they want to and knowing what their dad's thought about stuff And I think that's pretty cool. It's been preserved. I Totally agree. I this is an interesting way to think about the podcast because I I will there will be subjects that I I Read about learn about and apply and then five years later Circumstances will change in my life and everything around that subject has to be reapplied in a completely different way In a completely different context. And so one of the things that's interesting is Is it's an extremely rare week that goes by that I don't find myself struggling with something sure And when you look at that sort of in its guts You can find that there there's more there's more to The principle and the way you apply it Then then how you had done in the past and so I do think there is I think you're right I mean there is a point at which you're just sort of you know, you're done talking about core principles But I also think that there's um If you look at any given week of your life, there are struggles. There are things to be learned and at the heart of it is um Some something that you might have been missing That uh once discovered uh would have really helped you out in that particular circumstance I know I'm dealing with several of those right now this very week And so um, you know, there'll be plenty to talk about I think as time goes on Yeah, that's that's a great and maybe the the single greatest takeaway that our listeners can have for this series Is not that you need to agree with Chris and I and our principles and you and I haven't gotten into too many places Yet where we disagree but there there are a handful of things that we don't necessarily see eye to eye on That doesn't matter like you don't need to agree You don't need to be part of the the cult of matt and chris reynolds like there's no that's that's not what the Purpose of this is matter of fact We want to move as far away from that as we possibly can the purpose is Do you understand what principles drive your life? And it's to get people to think about those things and I think in for us we have an advantage in that in Recording the podcast about these principles It it sort of codifies these principles for us And forces us to think a little bit harder about them And both in the present as we record them and also in the future as we look back and say, you know what? I in fact don't feel that way anymore about that thing Yeah, you know, I was telling rachel. Uh, I was she I hadn't shared with her yet the Personality stuff and I said hey guess where I came out on the on the mires briggs on the on the Um extroverted introverted thing. She's like, you know super extrovert. I was like, mm-hmm I was like i'm still an extrovert But it's already it's been reduced by 30 in the last five years. Yeah.  You know, that's okay So it'll be it'll be fun to look back at these things after ever after communicating those principles and kind of codifying those things and and I've said this I think probably 50 times in the 320 podcasts that I've that we've recorded If you have not sat down listeners And written down the things literally on a piece of paper Or on your notepad on your phone.  You're missing out. You should do it Because what you'll you'll find there will be some things that rob you of value That do not need to be replaced Right, for example, like there are there are unhealthy things I can drink too much. I can watch pornography.  I could just hire somebody else to do the payroll and then they can just send me the email and I can look at it and be like Okay, and then that's it. Yeah. Yeah rather than taking nine hours to do the thing. Yeah Well, so much of this the the reason the huge value in in writing down a list like this Is that you know look let's say it's mowing the lawn like it is for me It's not a huge value to you to not mow the lawn once In your life.  This is that right Which means that you have compounded the your Free time That's available to you to do the other things that do add value That's right And that's one of the the the easiest steps in this is to just You almost have to have a running list for like a month or two You start your list by scanning your past week And then as time goes on it when you find yourself particularly irritated that you're doing something Go grab your list and be like I don't want to do that anymore. That's right You know and so there's just that there's a way you can go through that and and the reason that it's valuable is that it Once you have come up with a way to get rid of that piece of of of time suck in your life Um, if you can do it forever then it has a massive massive multiplicative effect In freeing up additional that's right. If you mow your lawn an hour a week Every week, let's say you mow 30 weeks a year, right? So it's a little more than half of the year You have for 50 years That's 1,500 hours that you mowed now if you like mowing Beautiful, that's 1,500 hours that brought you joy, but if you hate it that's 1,500 hours that you hated That's that's that's that's nearly That's 30. That's almost 40 40 hour work weeks That's right. And the and it's the opportunity cost of that time That is the actual worst part of this is right because not only did you do 1,500 hours that you hated You did that instead of 1,500 hours of things that you could have liked. That's exactly right. It's that's the swing Yeah, that's good. All right, dude. Thanks for sharing that stuff You've listened to another barbell logic episode the principles edition principles series Talk where we talk about values principles things that uh really drive our lives Every single sunday. So thanks for joining and we'll see you tomorrow


Hey welcome back to drinks made easy today I'll be showing you how to make a sweet variation of the old-fashioned the peanut butter banana old-fashioned and to do that I'll be using screwball banana liqueur and Mexican chocolate bitters now I classify this cocktail as more of an after-dinner or dessert cocktail But honestly you can have it whenever you want and you can make it however you want because as Paul says it's food and Speaking of Paul if you are a subscriber and you're wondering why you're looking at me and why we're in a completely different setting Than what you're used to stick around at the end and I will tell you and if you are new Why don't you go ahead and subscribe and you can find out who the hell Paul is? All right, let's make this drink To make this drink we're going to start with two ounces of your screwball. I love that sound when you open up a new bottle Hmm, I don't know people I love this. I love the way it smells So two ounces Next we're going to be using a quarter ounce of banana liqueur now in the test builds of this I experimented with a full ounce half ounce eight ounce and settle on a quarter ounce because I felt like that was the Right blend of liqueur to be able to play nicely with the peanut butter whiskey and then finally We're going to be using our Mexican chocolate bitters and I'm going to be using six dashes of that Now I picked Mexican chocolate bitters as opposed to Cocoa bitters, which is what some of the recipes called for because I just felt like it pulled everything nicely together into one drink whereas I felt just the cocoa bitters was Really didn't add anything to it.  I mean, it's a peanut butter banana cocktail It's exactly what you would think that you're going to get from something called a peanut butter banana cocktail And I'm just so glad I found it and I'm so glad that I showed you how to make it now You can make it for yourself and for your friends and family Cheers so hmm And about Paul Paul is now a brand ambassador for book Lottie distilleries So we haven't been able to really get our schedules to coincide, but he'll be back soon. I hope and We'll go from there. Cheers drinks made easy


We could start off with that. I like that little remote controller in the lights. It's very spacey. Show us, please. That's it. What can you see in the background? Why? I got everything. You got all the roof flashing on the ceiling. Oh, there you go. This is amazing. Everything's white. I love it. Fantastic. Is that in your home, Acer? Is that a studio outside? A basement. Yeah, so I thought it looks like a basement. Acer, I need a basement like that. When I bought this house, it was completely absolutely nothing. And I built a drum room over this subway, which is double walled and is soundproofed totally. And then this is the control room. And I always like big control rooms, because I've learned over the years that a lot of the recording all happens in here. I got my amps here and the speakers are in the other room with microphones and the microphones coming here to the preamps.  Beautiful, beautiful. It's like a band center. And then you got the Stargate in back. Yeah, it looks like a USS Enterprise. Yeah, you're right. Yeah, well, I'm kind of a guy who thinks outside the box when it comes to designing a recording studio. I've been in so many. I love it. Good news. 10,000 volts was released February 23rd. You can still pick it up, of course. I know a lot of people are loving this album. Ace, really, our guest. First time on the show. First time on the metal voice. Yeah, it's in the cavern, I guess, of Ace's cavern. My pleasure. Have you seen the lenticular cover? Of the new album, you mean? This one. Yeah, it's got everything. Aliens, spaceships, the lightning bolts disappear. Oh, I only have the jewel case version, Ace. Oh, yeah. Very nice. I like it a lot. I got this. I mean, Walmart only made 2,000 of them. And I bought 1,000. So there's only 1,000 left. Well, I have a confession. I bought the other 1,000. Second run because this sold out in less than a week. First question, you know, you made the claim right before it was released. This is going to embarrass Paul and Gene because that's how good this album is. The feedback that you got. I'm sorry? Did I succeed? Did you succeed from all the feedback that you've gotten over this album and the charting that it did? Did you succeed? I think I did. All right, I think you did too. Honestly, I didn't try to make a great record just to show them up. And it was ironic that the album got finished, mixed, and mastered around the time they were retiring, which I don't believe is going to happen. I'm sure they're going to reform in one way or another or with different people. I think Gene already put together a band and has some shows happening in South America. But be that as it may, I wish them all the very best and any of their new endeavors. Because we're all brothers in rock and roll. And we created something really special. And believe it or not, even though we argue and stuff and disagree, we're still all friends. As you sing in Cosmic Heart, life's too short, right? I love that song. Yeah, I mean. And the lyrics are pretty much biographical. Yeah, compared to Ozzy Osbourne, you know, as an ordinary man. It's a mature musician looking back on his life. That's a great song. Like you said, the lyrics. I made a lot of mistakes.  I mean, if I wouldn't have gotten sober 17 years ago, none of us would be here right now. I'd probably be pushing up daisies, you know? But, you know, looking back and especially what you spoke about in that song, I mean, what is some advice you could give some up-and-coming musicians based on your vast experience? Practice, practice and more practice. I mean, when I got my first electric guitar, I just practiced all the time. And it paid off. Yeah, but it really depends upon several factors. Number one, I was born into a family where everyone played an instrument. My mother, father, sister and brother all played piano. My brother and sister both played acoustic guitar. I mean, my dad was a concert pianist. He could play Beethoven, Mozart, you know, you name it. And he used to tell me, he used to go, yeah, it doesn't matter what instrument you're playing. He goes, it's all in technique.  And that's one of the reasons people cite me as being a major influence, you know, guitar players. Because, you know, I have a certain way that I play. You know, even Tommy Thayer, he might play the right notes, but he's not picking it. And his vibrato isn't the same as mine. It's close, but no cigars. It's all about the feel. Whatever. The song blinded. Now you're taking a little bit of a turn and getting into more of a political, social topic. I mean, was that? Well, I said to Steve, the co-producer Steve Brown, I said, listen, this is about halfway through the record, I think. I said, listen, all the songs are about chicks. So I was recently looking at videos on YouTube about the dangers of artificial intelligence. And I read some magazines and I mean, believe it or not, you know, more than 35% of the computer scientists and CEOs of companies are saying in five to 10 years, you know, there's a good chance artificial intelligence could turn on us like it has in so many films. Right. Like five films. So, I don't know, I take one day at a time.  If I died tomorrow, you know, I've lived 10 lifetimes. Is there anything we can do about it at the end of the day to stop that from happening? Well, you know, I have a beautiful fiance I ended up going to sleep with, which is nice. Marco, everybody. Have you seen the Cherry Medicine video? Yes, it's a great song, great song, great song. Yeah, I mean, the really cute brunette with the leopard top is her daughter and she's the one that's in the tub and sitting next to me on the couch with the cherries on her dress. Yeah, I asked my interviewers how old do you think she is? They go 30, 35. Well, she's 54. Crazy. And it's because she takes care of herself and she's, you know, she works out in the gym. She's a trainer.  She's got me doing exercises. There you go. And it's helped me. Yeah. Good, good, good. It's helped me and, you know, I'm down to 173. Yeah. Five years ago when I went to South America, I was 224. Ooh. I don't know how much weight that is. How tall are you, six feet? Six two. Six two. Two, 222, okay, 175. You're fighting trim now. Yeah, I'm pretty much the same way I was when I did the reunion tour and worked with KISS. Yeah. I mean, in the early days of KISS, I was about 160, 165. Yes.  We were all 160 at one point. Yeah, I was a beanpole my whole life. I was always skinny, you know, and then I remember one year, maybe three or four years into KISS, five years, my metabolism changed.  Ace, I was reading Geddy Lee's book and they had, I was reading Geddy Lee's book, Geddy Lee from Rush, his book. And he just, he outlines in his book what great memories they had Rush when they opened up for KISS. Do you have any memories from that time with Geddy and Neil Perd and Alex Lifeson?  You know, Alex used to put a bag over his head, joint, Peter would get up and do his routine. Sometimes I'd do some kind of silly routine. Yeah, in those days when I was drinking, I could rattle off 50 or 75 jokes, nonstop. One right after the other. For some reason, I can't remember them anymore. Yeah, that happens. At one point in my life, I wanted to be a stand-up comedian. But... I think it would have been good. I turned out because I never had the time to do it. Creatures of the night, you know, that style of music were straight ahead, hard rock and music. And then you kind of leave the band at that point. Did you regret it though? No, I had already committed to leaving the group and I started looking for band members and stuff and jamming with other people. And pretty much Paul and Jean did everything I said they should have done during the recording of The Elder. You know, it was just too late. I had made the decision because I could never trust those guys. I don't know what hair-brain scheme they'd come up with. I mean, if I was still in the band, I would have never agreed to do these avatars.  I mean, I wish them well.  Hey, one of the songs, Ace, I've been wanting to get your opinion on it. It's up in the sky talking about aliens and with the UFO hearings going on down there. What is it? Congress or Senate? Is it factor fiction, as you ask in the song? Originally, it was called Factor Fiction, and then Steve suggested a different title. You know, but, you know, most of the music and lyrics were already written and Steve came up with some good ideas and it came up in the sky. You know, and Steve came up with that high part at the end.  And I got aggravated the other day because I heard that, you know, people were saying I didn't write any of the songs on the record. And it was all Steve Brown and and, you know, Steve, he was doing three sides of the coin. And, you know, he kind of confirmed that by saying, yeah. The guy said, well, how much did a sprint to the table? And he goes, well, I pretty much wrote about 97 percent. And I was really shocked when he said that because that's not the case. And I called him up and he apologized to me.  I love him, you know, he was so excited about the record and they were asking some questions that weren't rehearsed. He wasn't he had no idea. So, you know, everybody sometimes toots their own horn a little more than they should sometimes without thinking. You know, he was so excited about the record, you know, he made that statement. But he made it to me last night. You know, that that wasn't the case. You know, when I brought up up in the sky and several other things, you know, I mean, what's that one song that everybody's jumping on a bandwagon now fighting for life? Oh, yes. The best songs on the record. You know, I rewrote the whole chorus for that.  I always have been. But, you know, when it when it came to this album, I if Steve brought a song to me with lyrics, you know, ultimately I know we white rewriting at least 50 percent of the lyrics, you know, just because I'm a lyricist. And I think he'd be the first one to admit that. But he's definitely a much better engineer and producer than I am. And Greg, the top player and good songwriter. And very knowledgeable on pro tools, much more so than myself. You know, I'd like to give credit where credit's due. So so would you say it was like a 50 50? You're both collaborated 50 50 on it. We just decided no matter how much one of us brought to the table, we were going to split everything in half, you know, because it's a lot easier doing it that way than because, you know, I don't need that, you know, I don't need the money that bad. And, you know, I know Steve worked really hard because not only did he co-produce it, but he engineered the whole record himself. Yeah. And I didn't have to pay for an engineer. So that saved me thousands of dollars. And we just, you know, whatever one guy brought to the table or the other guy, it really didn't matter. It was to me, the most important thing is the end result, you know, I sang lead on all of it on all the songs. I played guitar solos on 80 percent of the songs, 75 percent, a couple of solos that he came up with. They were guide solos for me to copy.  Let's just leave them. You know, he goes, well, I don't want any credit. Yeah, humble.  I don't want to take credit for your solo if I didn't write it. So, you know, that's the kind of relationship we have. And, you know, it really doesn't matter who came up with what first. I always end up aceifying it. Putting my stamp on it, you know, you can't get away from my voice. The minute you hear my voice, you know, it's ace fairly. Yeah, that's for sure. Yeah. And thanks for sending the record straight. I mean, yeah. Yeah. So did he claim he wrote 90 percent, 97 percent of it? Or is that what you said before? He said, I think that, you know, how questions can be a little deceiving. He said, well, how did ace really write? And he said, well, you know, we did a cover song, which was my idea of a song by Nadia called Life of a Stranger, which turned out great. And I wrote walking on the moon on the fifth song on the record. Oh, yeah. Back in my arms again. Back in my. Yeah.  And, you know, whenever, you know, when he brought me walking on the moon, it was there was one line in the chorus called walking on the moon, but it wasn't the crux of the top of the chorus. And I said. This song has to be called walking on the moon. He came over my house and we worked it up and I wrote most of the lyrics and I got great. And, you know, as far as I'm concerned, it really doesn't matter who does what as long as the end result is is what I want and what Steve wants. And, you know, we were always on the same page for the most part. Of course, we'd have our differences, you know, from time to time. I mean, he wrote a song and I can't remember which one it was. He brought a song to me and it was kind of finished, but it was like a drum machine, you know, and I wanted to bring in a different drummer and change a few things on it. And I said, this song needs a bridge. And he said, no, it doesn't need a bridge. I said, trust me, it needs a bridge. I've been writing songs for 50. I wrote a bridge in 10 minutes and we inserted it after the second chorus and he goes, wow, that's really good. So, you know, that's the way we worked. Well, you know, he brought I added to took away did a guitar solo on it, sang it. We didn't use any auto tuning like some people are saying. I have perfect pitch so I can tell if I'm singing flat, I just redo it.  What's it like, you know, because your your new love life is it? What's your state of mind these days? It's a combination of actually me and Steve like soulmates, too. I mean, I'm soulmates with my fiance, Laura, and she actually sang on constantly cute. She sang on the pre-chorus and the chorus. And, you know, Steve was asked in this other interview, did you do all the backgrounds? He goes, yeah, I did all the backgrounds. Of course, he forgot that my fiance sang on backgrounds on one song. But, you know, it was it was just one of those things where he wasn't thinking 100 percent on point. And I called them up and he apologized and he said, look, I'm going to my next few interviews, I'm going to try to undo what I said. That wasn't 100 percent accurate. So that's all. You know, I still want to work with him in the future because he's a great engineer and we get things done. And then a great sounding album, too. So congrats to both of you. And, you know, Steve was the guy who who found the mixer and guy who mastered the record. And every time I talk about it, I can't remember his name. I mean, it might say it on here somewhere. But on the. Hey, Ace, to follow up to Alan's question, do you really believe in aliens? Is this is this is this something that you believe in? Yeah, I've seen UFOs multiple times. Yeah, I think we're we're past the point that if they exist, they we I think we've proven that they do exist. But you believe in this. You think if it came out that the whole world would be in a panic that they see so seemed to be worried about. They've already done polls and more than 50 percent of the population believes in aliens. So I don't think it would be that big a shock.  I don't buy that. Is, you know, God could have created aliens as well and on a different planet. And they ended up making it to here. It could have been the other way around. I mean, look, we're starting to go into the moon. You know, we, we, well, is on the on Mars, you know. So we're always our telescopes are always on the lookout for planets that might sustain life that are in that sweet spot, rotating around the sun. So, I mean, for us to believe in a universe this size with billions, maybe trillions of planets, we're the only one that has life on it. That's pretty ridiculous, I think. I think so, too. Planet Gendel, Gendel. Where did that rumor come from? Gendel. Oh, my friend in high school came up with that. And I just kind of used it once I became. And I used to drunk around while I was drunk. I go, yeah, I'm from I'm from Planet Gendel. Jimmy, Jimmy remembers that from his youth. He still is the kiss. Well, I mean, there was a lot of myths, right? Gene Simmons had his tongue sewn, right?  What what what Gene did. And he told me, he said he went when he was at the dentist and that little piece of. Oh, yeah. Skin that had connections. He said he had a clip so his tongue could stick out more. You know, he didn't get a piece to his tongue. Yeah, I mean, you know, knights in Satan's service, people used to say that's what he stood for.  And I'm used to it.   And, you know, it only made us bigger. Kids would sneak the albums into the room anyway, you know, and have somebody else buy for them. So I mean, you know, it's just like when you have a movie that's R rated, you know, younger kids who aren't allowed to go see it, want to see it more, so it's really psychology. Did you know when when when when Alive was mixed in or sort of redone in the studio, did you were you aware that, Gene and the rest of the gang were kind of working on it or touching it up? Sort of adding a lot. A lot of it was touched up a lot. Did you know that at least 50% of it was re-sung and replayed? I mean, and I remember Eddie Kramer had loops of tape going around microphone stands going back into these two inch tape quarter inch tape machines and each one had a different. He had three faders and they were dedicated to crowd response. And one was really crazy. One was midway and one was more subtle. And he, you know, it was. I mean, if you listen closer to the album, you can hear that it's faked and in many places.  You know, that was real.  In those days, we didn't have auto tune.  Yeah, we just wanted to put out the best product possible. And yeah, today in the studio, that stuff like that is done without even a thought. You know, and there's so many groups today that are performing live and have backing tracks, not just kiss. Plenty of other groups. And I don't want to name them because I know them and they're friends of mine. I rather not spill the beans. I don't want to, you know, disappoint the fans. But yeah, I there's a lot I know because I know everybody and I know and I know engineers and guys who do sound for these bands. And they tell me the real deal.  I mean, you remember when Millie Vanilly got, like, because they will find that they were lip syncing, you know, well, you know, things change over the years. You know, now it's accepted.  No, no, no, no, no, no, I if I if I lost my voice and I couldn't hit the notes, I'd hire a lead singer or have somebody else in the band sing, you know, I don't believe in having backup tracks because I'm too spontaneous. I change songs in the middle of the halfway through, you know, that, you know, the tempo isn't always the same. You know, when you have a pre-recorded show, the tempo and the length of the show is always exactly the same length. And people, you know, people were timing the length of the set and it was down to the second. So. Be that as it may, you know. Some people got hoodwinked. Some people asked for their money back and they got it, believe it or not. Actually, Millie Vanillie, I was working in a record store. They actually allowed people to give back the albums of Millie Vanillie and they would get credited for the album. So people would come into the store and give back their Millie Vanillie album that was, you know, yeah, and they got credited for them, too. The label would take them back. Yeah, that's how it was a crime. It was unfortunate, you know, I think those guys with talent, that they just didn't have the right people around them guiding them. And, you know, and somehow it came out. Oh, but if they're still alive, you know, they're probably looking at the music scene today and realizing, you know, what they did wasn't so bad. Especially today for the course today. You know, I wouldn't have to do it, you know, a lot of people do. I think, you know, when people come and pay good money to see a live band, they should see a live band here. Yeah, I agree. Did you regret when Peter was when voted out of the band? You know, you decided that you two would vote him out. Did you regret not having that ally with you? Yeah. And after he was gone, I realized I lost all my power with kiss because we were a democratic group. And nine times out of ten when Peter was in the band, he'd vote with me and Paul and Jim would vote another way. And then Bill O'Coyne was the tiebreaker, like he was like the fifth kiss.   You know, Jim grew up in Israel, you know, and Paul wasn't he lived in Queens, but he wasn't the kind of guy like me who grew up in the Bronx and hung out at the corner candy store. I had my pulse on the street and what people wanted. And I was like that through my whole life.  And I'd say, guys, you can't do that. It's not cool. Yeah. I saved them several times. I didn't even need to get into what the subject matter was. But, you know, they just didn't have a grasp of what was going on with the kids at the time. I mean, look at the elder. I mean, all they had to do was go, you know, ask around and look at the music scene. And everybody's coming out with hard rock, heavy metal albums.  What point did you make any sense to me? Where did they lose focus, Gene and Paul? Like, at what point, like, because they were on fire, first three, four albums, they were on fire, right, as musicians, as visionaries, as songs. I think, I don't know. They haven't put out a record in 20 years. You're summing up with that, you know, I've done five or six records at this juncture, besides my solo album in 78 and the Fraley's comic records. So it's just I keep chugging along, doing what I want to do when I want to do it. It's nice being my own boss, because those guys were really control freaks. So that's one of the main reasons I left the band. Yeah.  But that's one of the questions I had for you, AC, you know, with the gene of Paul's history, as they call it, their version, is that too entrenched for you to kind of say, hey, guys, that's not quite what happened. Or is it or is people just believe the narrative over? I never read it.  Yeah, for some reason, I mean, to be totally honest, it's hard for me to verbalize what those guys working with those guys was like.  And, you know, for me, I thought Kiss was a great vehicle and a great concept. And, you know, we designed our own makeup and costumes in the beginning. And I just took it, you know, as one day at a time. Yeah.  I'll never forget Bill O'Coyne came over to me right before a concert. He said, hey, still me a favor, don't curse. During the show, if you can help it, because it's five year old kids with lunchboxes. Yeah, I might lose the lunchbox at that point. I realized something was a little off. This isn't what I signed on for. And, you know, between that and the success of my solo album. You know, mom is the most successful out of the four. And I realized that that juncture in my career, I was more creative away from Paul, Jean and Peter than I was with them. You know, it reminds me of that show that you're on with Jean and Paul. I can't remember who the host was, where you're just laughing and laughing. Tom Snyder. Tom Snyder, yeah, yeah. That what was going through your mind? I mean, you could see Jean. I was drunk. I was drunk, but I had done a little blow. So that kind of bounced me out with your space bear, space teddy bear.  Everything I said in that show was all spontaneous. Nothing was going in the plumber joke and all that stuff. That just came to me at the moment. And you were supposed to be the quiet one guy, you know?  Sometimes I'll be sitting somewhere and just start laughing because I think funny things in my head.  You know, they put you on a time out after that, like after that show. Like, what did they tell you? Like, what are you doing, Ace? What are you doing? They disappeared. They never came over and congratulated me for doing a great show and being so hysterical. The only person who knocked on my kept knocking on my. Door, what's it called? Dressing room, dressing room door. Yeah, I'm a little burnt, so you got to bear with me. It was Tom Snyder. He wanted to he had so much fun because I got to meet this guy, you know? So I took my makeup off real quick and I invited him in the dressing room.  And I said, yeah, I've been told that before. I actually was told that by John Belushi, a professional comedian. A professional comedian. I was hanging out with John for, you know, six to eight months prior to his passing. And we got pretty close. We used to go on three day coke runs. I would always crack him up. And he used to say to me, Ace, you one of the few people that can make me laugh. You know, he's a professional comedian.  And I something he says something and I come back with something and he'd crack up. And he actually said to me before he left to get go on the plane to California. He said, you definitely got to be in my next film. Oh, there you go. Never happened. But we know we all know what happened. Well, wasn't meant to be. And I'm still funny. Well, well, I think that's that's that's ace, you know, the the sort of unique voice, the great guitar tone and playing and the spirit of rock and roll. Right. And, you know, the humor, right? And I think that's why all the fans, you know, always gravitated towards you. And people shouldn't take rock and roll so seriously. It's just an art form. And as far as I'm concerned, when I'm out performing live, I just want to make people happy.  And I have accomplished my job. Yeah. And that's the way I look at it. And I've never taken rock and roll super seriously. You know, I was always a really good graphic artist. I knew I had that to fall back on. I knew I could have probably been a stand-up comedian. You know, if I really got some good training from some other comedians and had people writing jokes for me, I know how to deliver them. And by, you know, the way things turned out. You know, I'm in a great place right now. I got a very successful record, more so than anything I've done in the past. And I got a new agent who's booking me some great shows. I got a great woman behind me. They say behind every great man is a great woman. I have a great woman behind me. And I got a great co-producer and life's life's good. Oh, yeah. Good. I'm happy to hear that. That's it. I think we'll leave it at that base. So thanks for your time. And just coming right from the Space Aces Basement is recording studio at his basement. It was a pleasure speaking to you today. Ten thousand volts. I'd just like to say hi to all my fans in Canada. Sorry, I haven't been up there in a while. But, you know, I have this passport issue. But once that's cleared up, I'll be up in Canada. I love playing Canada.  And I really miss performing in Europe as well. But, you know, next summer, I'll probably be doing all the festivals. So I have that to look forward to. And I got a ton of shows booked, you know, this summer and into the fall. So I'm going to be a busy beaver. Here's the last question, the last question. You I don't know how many years ago it's been now, 50 years. You walked into the studio room on this audition to kiss. And I guess Bob Coolick was there. Actually, he was before you. You walk right in. Did you think your life would turn out the way it has all those years later? Well, I can tell you from age 16, I always saw me becoming a famous rock star. And I always knew it was going to happen. If it didn't happen, we'd kiss and would happen with somebody else. You know, because I knew I had the image. I had the looks. I had the chops and I was tall and thin. And, you know, I found out later on, I could actually sing, too. So, you know. It was it was crazy. But I kind of knew it was all going to happen. It happened. It took longer to happen than I anticipated, though.  You know, we had three albums prior to a live that did so so. You know, but once the live hit, you know, we came out with this great package and it was basically a souvenir of our live concert. And that's something the first three albums never captured. You know, because we're really more of a live band. We're a spectacle with all the special effects and, you know, what have you? Confetti, Rockets, fire, bombs going off. So, you know, the live album really captured that. And I think that's what made people gravitate towards that record. And from that point on, we were playing arenas all over the place. And life got good. There's no looking back after that. Listen, catch Ace on tour, pick up his album, Ten Thousand Volts. It's probably one of his best solo albums. There it is. Well, you can pick up the lenticular cover. There it is. Or maybe when I'm off, you could find it. All right, Ace, been a pleasure. I'm telling you, I'm on top when I perform live. So you could pick it right. All right, go. Thank you forward to it. Thank you so much for your time. It's been a pleasure talking to you guys. A lot of fun. This is my last interview for the day. So I think I'm going to go jump in my Jaguar and take a spin. There you go. Enjoy the day.


Wel, gan y toffi TV i'r hyffordd, mae'r three things. Everton One, Newcastle United, nil. Y toffi's have a huge, huge three points on the board after Alex a Wobie's late winner. War y game. War y Mad Knight o Gwduswn Park. Everything against us, and we still won the game. Results like that can be hugely important. Let's begin with the referee, Craig Paulson, who was absolutely horrific. He was that bad, he could have played on our defence for the last few months. That's how bad he's been. He was shocking tonight.  Pathetic decisions. No control of the game. No clue what's a booking, and then books with Talisman for nothing. Even though he'd been kicked all up and down the park. Just embarrassing. Embarrassing decision with the red card. A verdal yn siarad a Knight saying it's never a red. Keith Darnley used the Sky Sports Newcastle reporter, who's a Geordie Newcastle fan, never a red card. Three of three other professionals saying what on earth is that decision. Whether it is or it isn't, the Premier League, I think Everton will appeal it, and the Premier League will decide that.  I don't understand how you can book someone at one end for a decision and at the other end there isn't a booking, and he just missed so much. Newcastle should have had about four bookings for late challenges, and because he played the advantage, he never went back and booked anyone. Just an awful referee. Absolutely awful.  And you do start to think, are these just really, really awful at day jobs, like really bad as if they've never done it before? Or is there something else going on here? Is the little drop she's going on here and being told what to do? Cos it's almost impossible to be as bad as what referees are in our games and VAR decisions.  And I'm not, you know, Newcastle have been on the end of some of these as well, and I'm just talking in general, it's very, very strange. They're awful. Quite simply, every one of them is pathetic, and it does make you feel like it's all corrupt, and they are corrupt, but there you go. But Craig Paulson, you know, helped Everton Football Clubs tonight by being awful, turning a 10 versus 11 into a 10 versus 12.  And once it's like that, it carries on energy, and the players bought into that. So nice one, Craig. Your awfulness has given us a little spark. Second thing I want to talk about is just how important that Alex of Wobby goal could be for the rest of the season. And it's one game of football, and, you know, Evan have got an FA Cup game on Sunday, regardless of how that goes, looking at the league. We return with two really tough away games at Westam United and then to Burnley. And obviously the Burnley one is a huge game. Westam will be a really tough game with no Allen, because I think if that red card is upheld, I think it's a three-match ban, so he's not going to be there. But when you're looking for a positive, and you have to when you're in that position, and you're looking at a game like that, the way he dug in, the way he battled, you're looking at the way the crowd were, Godderson provides that energy for the players, then I think Evan can easily beat the three teams I expect them to be, Palace, Leicester and Bremford. And Manchester United and Chelsea, you know, Evan could take points out of, I'm not saying they beat those teams, but, you know, Chelsea, in my opinion, are better than United. We had a tough game, but when there are energy hours like that, and you work and battle, you make nick points here and there, and certainly if you play, and I know we don't perform like that away from home, and that's the frustrating thing, but I think what Frank Llanparth did tonight with the team, and obviously with the likes of Goffrey at left back, was just made us a little bit more compact, kind of what Carlo did last season, dig in a little bit more. It wasn't great, no-one had to sit there, and I wouldn't sit here and try to kid anyone that it was a superb attack and performance by Evan, and that's what we want to play like. I wouldn't say that because I thought Newcastle at times were the better side. They didn't really, they lacked quality in the final third, the same way as we did. I thought they had more control of the game at times than we did, but what we did do was make it difficult for them, and when you've got no confidence like Evan haven't been on a terrible run, you know, Evan hadn't scored in the last four games we fought tonight, everything's difficult, passes are difficult, you know, you don't mark plays you should, directs of a couple of yards tracking becomes an effort. When you're confident and you've got energy, you look like it. You know, I saw Newcastle against us at St James's Park, and they were the better side that night, but quite simply, just by running a bit more, there wasn't really any quality on display, rather, you know, apart from, in my opinion anyway, St Maxime we thought was excellent that night. The rest of it was very much up on that, and yet tonight when you watched them, they went, don't get me wrong, they went great, but they looked more confident, and that's cos they've been on a really good run, and that's what confidence can do. It can turn an average team or a poor side, which we've both been this season, into an average side that wants the ball, and I think Evan, just right now, are on the knees, and tonight is a huge win, and it could, results like that can be a catalyst for staying up and for going on a good run. It can sometimes be a catalyst to get it into Europe for other teams or, and sometimes you win leagues through those kinds of wins that you get. I'm hoping for Evan, it's the catalyst to us being able to believe we can win any game. We'll come short of course, you will, you know, we've got Liverpool away and Arsenal away, and they're two hugely difficult games, but the other games you've got a battle and scrap for, and I hope it gives them that confidence, and when you win a game with 10 men against all the odds and the referee, and you win it so late, it gives you that belief that anything is possible if you work hard, and the players will be knackered tonight, and they should be, but hopefully, hopefully that'll be a certain that they can build on. Finally, I'm going to reserve this for Alex Oboby. Alex Oboby, who has come up the match winner tonight, had given my man a the match because it was such an important goal. He's a lad who's come from Arsenal, and it hasn't worked. His time of everything has been unspectacular, and I think that was just something like his fourth Everton goal since he's been here. It's a huge goal. It's quite comfortably the biggest goal he scored for us, and I think, I hope, it does him the well the good. What I would say is, in the games, Frank Llandparts played them, and certainly it goes us, and he's done well. I thought he did really well tonight. He worked his socks off. The final third, he hasn't been greating, but all the other stuff he's given us a base from, you know, leads, he was excellent, and he worked his socks off. Mant City worked hard. Tonight he worked hard. He's come up with a goal. The crowd was singing his name, you know, and that can be a big moment in players' career. Every Everton fan wants to see their team running the bollocks off. That's what that's faced and foremost. The best two teams in the country do it. Liverpool, Mant City, run and run and run and run and don't stop. Every one of them, and you have to do that to even have a hope of getting in the team. Yes, they've got more quality than us, of course they have, but that's the basic level, and if the best two teams in the land do it, then why shouldn't you replicate it? And that's, I think that's what Alex O'Wobee's done. He's got in the side. He's worked hard, and he's been rewarded tonight with a goal, and if he performs like that with that work rate, then people won't complain about him being in the squad or being on the team sheet, you know, when I made up for him tonight because he has stuck some stick, and it hasn't gone smoothly for him, and he will have hoped that when he come here it'd be better than what it's been, but that's a big win for Everton, and he scored the goal that money. So that should do him the way of the good, and hopefully he can have a little revival as well and become a big player for us, certainly in the next few weeks, and get us some more points, but I just wanted to finish on a positive. I thought he deserved a special praise because he's done really well tonight. Can he follow it up and have another good performance? That's on him, but tonight he was excellent. That's it for my matriaxing stuff. Enjoy it if you're a Newcastle fan, I'm sure you're safe anyway, you'll be fine, and that's it, give the video a thumbs up, subscribe if you haven't and want more videos to join us on Patreon. Have a great night, see you later.


What up, what it do Milwaukee Brewers Nation? It is Marco Martinez live from the bed here with the bubble Tiggy He's chilling. Hope everyone's doing good. Happy Monday Brew crew has the off day today tomorrow. We start the series against the Kansas City Royals. That's low Canes old team I don't know why I brought that up. But yeah, anyway, we'll be playing them tomorrow I believe it's a three game series and then we'll see what's up But I cannot wait for the Brewers to go to Kansas City is gonna be so much fun It's gonna be great series. We're gonna sweep the Kansas City Royals. I'm predicting it right now What do you guys think? Do you think we'll sweep them? I think we will at least I hope we will but I think we will Anyway, hope the brew crew enjoy their day off Probably do some traveling today going to Kansas City and all so I can start the series tomorrow So yeah, everyone enjoy your Monday. Happy Monday and go Brewers go. See you guys later. Bye


But one thing I found really, really interesting and this kind of suggests, you know, the role of voluntary association and the importance of voluntary association and the importance of voluntary action and private action. What I'm seeing right now is a large number of businesses stopping dealings with Russia. And I think they're doing it not because they're being somehow caused by government, but I think they're doing it for two reasons. I think there's some pressure on them from domestic consumers and from consumers in Europe. There's some pressure on them probably from shareholders and there's some moral outrage among CEOs, among board members of what is going on in Ukraine. And that moral outrage is being reflected in the fact that, for example, today McDonald's McDonald's hamburgers has closed 850 stores in Russia 850 stores in Russia are closed indefinitely. Now that means a lot of people have lost their jobs in Russia. It means real economic pain in Russia. It means a hit to the bottom line of McDonald's and it's proof that companies don't always pursue just the short-term bottom line, but they do have an incentive to care where they're doing business. Now, will this affect how they deal with China? I think this is a great signal to China that if they invade Taiwan, Kentucky Fried Chicken might leave China and the Chinese would tolerate almost anything except Kentucky Fried Chicken leaving the country. You've never seen so many Kentucky Fried Chicken in your life as you will see in China when you travel around China. So it is interesting to see that these stores are cancelling Starbucks is shutting down all its stores in Russia. Pepsi, China is the third largest market in the world for Pepsi, which just proves that there's something wrong with Russia because Coca Cola is so much better than Pepsi always has been, I think always will be and yet Pepsi is big in Russia. So Pepsi, in spite of the fact that this is their third largest market, is leaving Russia. Let's see, who else? Coca Cola is leaving Russia. We know that MasterCard, Visa and American Express have all left Russia. I don't drink Coca Cola. I don't drink Pepsi. I haven't seen Coca Cola cancelling Russia. I think this is terrific. I think it's, you know, Apple is not selling anything to Russia. It really is, of course, Russia has already banned Twitter and Facebook from the country. So they are centering American social media companies. They're centering everything else as well. So I think it's terrific to see the private sector stand up and say, there are some people we will not do business with. And there's no requirement, no requirement politically. And I don't think there's anything in the back channels where politicians are calling up McDonald's and saying, we're going to regulate you unless you do this and this with Russia. I think this is just long-term rational selfish decision making by American corporations to not deal with this motorist regime. So I am all on board with that. Nathan asked just because it's right on this topic. In your last show, you said that the Russian people are being misled by the government. Yes. What are the people being told about all these businesses withdrawing their services? What do people know? You know, I don't know. But my guess is that it will, you know, the truth in spite of propaganda, in spite of censorship, the truth does get through at least in pieces. They could be told this is a vast Western conspiracy against Russia. That will be the propaganda line that all these Western countries are anti-Russian and they are being forced by the anti-Russian governments to leave Russia. That I think would be the standard line that the propagandist would sell the Russian people, whether the Russian people buy on or not. I mean, it's fascinating.  Those are usually young and they're typically middle class. You're seeing people leaving Russia. I saw a story about people, middle class professionals leaving Russia and going overseas and trying to find jobs overseas because they don't want to be involved in Russia. I mean, I've long advocated that the United States should say any Russian who wants to come and work in the United States, you're invited. I wonder how many people would stay of the 144 million who live in Russia right now. But a lot of people would leave. But that would be good. So many Russians know what's going on. They find ways, they use VPNs, they do what they need in order to find accurate information. But the common person is not sophisticated technologically. All the people in Russia the more nationalist oriented, the ones who are just going to believe what the government tells them, just like some people just believe what Donald Trump says without questioning, without thinking. Those are, you know, and some people who believe everything Obama said without questioning, without thinking. I don't think anybody believes what Biden says without questioning, without thinking. I just don't think he has that kind of fan base. But Obama suddenly did and Trump certainly did. Thank you for listening or watching the Iran Brook show. If you'd like to support the show, we make it as easy as possible for you to trade with me. You get value from listening. You get value from watching. Show your appreciation. You can do that by going to IranBookShow.com slash support by going to Patreon, subscribe star locals and just making a appropriate contribution on any one of those, any one of those channels. Also, if you'd like to see the Iran book show grow, please consider sharing our content and of course, subscribe. Press that little bell button right down there on YouTube so that you get an announcement when we go live. And for those of you who are already subscribers and those of you who are already supporters of the show, thank you. I very much appreciate it.